{"id":11670,"date":"2012-06-04T09:29:04","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T14:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=11670"},"modified":"2012-06-04T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T14:29:10","slug":"why-groundwater-is-running-out-in-the-panhandle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/04\/why-groundwater-is-running-out-in-the-panhandle\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Groundwater Is Running Out in the Panhandle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Scott Olson\/Getty Images<\/p>

Juan Rico works in an cotton field that is watered by an underground irrigation system July 27, 2011 near Hermleigh, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Texas Panhandle’s corn crops are greener now than they have been in many months. Recent rainfall has given this season’s crops a new lease on life. But, corn crops thirty years from now might not be so lucky. The rapid depletion of the Panhandle’s groundwater supplies could dramatically alter the character of agriculture in the region.<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> on groundwater depletion in the Central Valley of California and the High Plains Region has placed most of the blame on\u00a0agriculture irrigation practices. Researchers at the University of Texas claim that\u00a0the Texas Panhandle will be unable to sustain irrigated agriculture within the next thirty years if current patterns of groundwater use continue.<\/p>\n

“Current rates of replenishment in the Panhandle are very low and we are basically pulling out water faster than it is being replenished,” says\u00a0Dr. Bridget Scanlon<\/a>, senior research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin’s\u00a0Bureau of Economic Geology<\/a>. “It’s just like a bank. If you withdraw money faster than you deposit money, you will eventually run out. The groundwater depletion rate in the northern Texas panhandle is now at least ten times its recharge rate.”<\/p>\n

And the Central Valley of California faces a similar situation.<\/p>\n

Related<\/h4>
Posts<\/h5>