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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 7, 2003

Arthur testifies regarding
High Plains aquifer

Texas Farm Bureau Vice President Lloyd Arthur of Ralls was on Capitol Hill late last month to testify on behalf of Texas Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation in opposition to S. 212. The proposed Senate bill, which calls for a federal study of the Ogallalla, or High Plains, aquifer, would expand federal power over groundwater.

Speaking to members of the House Resources Committee, and the Water and Power Subcommittee, Arthur, a producer who grows cotton and grain sorghum on 3,781 acres of farmland in that area, irrigates his crops from the High Plains Aquifer. Arthur pointed out that the aquifer is essential to his livelihood.

"The High Plains Aquifer is an open aquifer system containing some 3.3 billion acre-feet of water," noted Arthur. "The average water table thickness is 300 feet. The overlying land is some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in the United States. Farmers and ranchers like myself have utilized water resources through irrigation to produce an abundance of crops and products that beneficially add to local and state economies and help feed America and the world. While agriculture is often pointed to as the reason for a declining water table in the High Plains Aquifer, the fact is that developing irrigation technology continues to make American agriculture the most efficient groundwater user in the world."

According to Arthur's testimony, about 35 percent of Texas' agribusiness is generated in the 41 counties that overlay the aquifer from Lubbock to Amarillo. Moreover, he stated that the High Plains area produces 50 percent of the state's cotton crop. Approximately 30 percent of the income in the Panhandle is dependent on its regional agriculture industry, which is true of all the states that overlie the High Plains Aquifer. He further noted producers' conservation efforts in the region, including his own move from furrow irrigation to Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) technology, that has reduced his water usage by 18 percent over the past decade. Arthur said he is now considering installation of subsurface drip irrigation technology for even more efficiency.

Arthur pointed out that many advances in water conservation resulted from state research and local control over groundwater issues.

"When this work is done at the local level, it has the support and cooperation of constituents and maintains the trust and confidence of the local citizenry," he said. "This level of local cooperation could be lost if the federal government were to assume the much greater role in groundwater resources management that S.212 suggests."

Arthur said S. 212 would require the Secretary of Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to oversee work to characterize, map, model and monitor the High Plains Aquifer.

"AFBF and the Texas Farm Bureau oppose the federal component and specifically, the establishment of a Federal Review Panel and any requirement of the Secretary of Interior to report to Congress on the High Plains Aquifer," he said.

Within the eight-state region of the High Plains Aquifer, 4,800 wells are used annually for observing water levels. Arthur said S. 212 would duplicate related research at Texas A&M and other ongoing state programs, and would give the federal government authority over an area that has historically been under state jurisdiction.