Ogallala Aquifer, Texas, USA
Jeremy Starn
Ogallala Aquifer, Texas, USA
Photography
Ogallala Aquifer, Texas, United States of America
34° 38’ 20” N, 102° 43’ 18” W
The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest aquifers in the world, stretching from South Dakota to Northern Texas. It supplies drinking water to over two million people and is the primary source of water for industrial agriculture in the Midwest. Since the discovery of this low-lying aquifer and the invention of the pivotal irrigation system in the 1950s, the Ogallala Aquifer has become the most irrigated region in the western hemisphere. Irrigation accounts for 95% of the aquifers use however it is an unsustainable resource. Within several decades it is predicted that the aquifer will no longer be able to support the currant scale of industrial agriculture.