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 WATER-LEVEL OBSERVATION WELL PROGRAM
The service described in this document is available only to persons residing within the 15-county High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 service area.
Each January, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District technical division staff begin making depth-to-water level measurements in a network of
more than 1,200 privately-owned wells located throughout the District. These wells provide a density of about one well per nine square miles in the 10,728 square mile Water District service area. The results of this measuring effort are published in the April issue of
The Cross Section each year.
Follow this link for the results of the district's 2007
depth-to-water level measurements.
Chart revised May 7, 2007.
This information provides High Plains Water District residents with the current status of water levels in the aquifer, as well as changes that have occurred during the past year, the past five years, and the past ten years.
The first extensive water-level measuring effort in the region was conducted as part of the Federal Work Project Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s. Depth-to-water measurements were made in almost every well in each county in the High Plains. The results of these measurements were published in individual county reports. After the WPA work was completed, depth-to-water level measurements were made annually in a few wells by the U.S. Geological Survey or the State Board of Water Engineers until the creation of the Water District in 1951.
After that time, the District created its own measuring program, and by 1957, had taken over the federal and state water level measuring efforts in the counties it serves.
Municipal pumps that were tested reflected similar problems, and when repaired, the energy costs were significantly reduced.
In the early 1950s, people had the perception that the Ogallala Aquifer was a huge underground lake being fed (recharged) from snow melt from the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico and Colorado. There was considerable water waste since people believed that an aquifer held an unlimited water supply.
Observation well data has been used to convince water users that the water supply is indeed exhaustible and that if water waste continued (similar to that in the 1950s) the aquifer would be depleted before 1985. However, this has not occurred due to the development and acceptance of new water conservation practices.
Many things have helped reduce the net depletion rate of the Ogallala Aquifer within the High Plains Water District service area. The rate averaged 1.4 million acre-feet per year from 1966 to 1976; about 950,872 acre-feet per year from 1976 to 1986; about 195,993 acre-feet per year from 1986 to 1991. Between 1991 and 1997, the Water District's service area increased as the result of the annexation of parts of parts of three counties. As a result of this, the amount of net depletion which occurred during the drought of the 1990s within the District is no longer comparable.
Additional information is available from
Don McReynolds, P.G., Technical Group Supervisor, at (806) 762-0181.
 
This
page last updated
04/07/2008
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