Ogallala Blue Pa

by Ashworth,William

• ISBN13: 9780881507362
• ISBN10: 0881507369
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-17
• Publisher: Countryman Press

Summary

The Ogallala Aquifer that lies deep beneath the Great Plains from Texas to Colorado contains enough water to fill Lake Erie nine times! Every year five trillion gallons are pumped out for irrigation, and if (or when) the aquifer goes dry, $20 billion worth of food and fiber grown with that irrigation will disappear. William Ashforth tells the fascinating history of the Ogallala from its formation millions of years ago to glimpses of the future when the Great Plains could return to their Sahara Desert-like past.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Palisaded Plain	p. 1
The Underground Ocean
The Phantom Reservoir	p. 7
The Flattest Land	p. 16
Pumping Kansas Dry	p. 22
Declining Fortunes	p. 29
A State of Nature	p. 34
Don't Drink the Water	p. 44
Too Important to Stop	p. 58
Paper Water	p. 61
To Determine Their Destiny	p. 73
The Ghosts of Ancient Rivers
Peering at the Edge	p. 83
To Dig a Hole	p. 88
Holocene	p. 116
"Wholly Unfit for Cultivation"	p. 127
Finding the Water	p. 133
Circles on the Plain	p. 142
Apocalypse Delayed	p. 151
Minimum Water
Adaptation	p. 159
The Opportunity to be Efficient	p. 171
Making Every Bit Count	p. 178
A Tenuous Balance	p. 186
An Elephant in a Dark Room	p. 191
Roberts County Rancher	p. 210
Drowning Texas Tech	p. 241
The Long Farewell	p. 255
Epilogue: The Buffalo Spring	p. 271
Acknowledgments	p. 283
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 311
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