Analyzing potential water conservation strategies in the Texas Panhandle
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Analyzing potential water conservation strategies in the Texas Panhandle MariKate Crouch1 · Bridget Guerrero1 · Steve Amosson2 · Thomas Marek2 · Lal Almas1 Received: 16 September 2019 / Accepted: 22 July 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Water is a vital resource for agricultural crop production in the Texas Panhandle. This semi-arid region relies almost solely on the Ogallala Aquifer as the primary source of water. Agricultural production dominates water use in the area and is projected to account for 92% of total water use by 2020. Since agriculture is such an essential sector of the regional economy, prolonging irrigation capability through improvements in crop production methods is warranted. The area of concern and evaluation in this study consists of Texas’ northernmost 21 counties where groundwater withdrawal rates continue to exceed the aquifer’s recharge rate, resulting in less available irrigation resources. Within the region, seven counties in the Panhandle Water Planning Area of Texas are projected to incur water shortages in the 2020–2070 planning horizon. A regional analysis evaluating several agricultural water conservation strategies and combinations to address the decline of water use in the region is presented. The analysis examines potential water savings and implementation costs associated with the alternative strategies to provide useful information to stakeholders such as producers, groundwater conservation districts, and regional water planning groups.
Introduction The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest underground water reservoir in the United States covering approximately 453,248 square kilometers. The aquifer provides water to South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. While initially thought to be limitless, it is a finite and depleting groundwater resource (McGuire 2017). The southern part of the Ogallala Aquifer is the main water source in the Texas Panhandle for agricultural, industrial, and municipal consumption (Panhandle Water Planning Group 2016). Agriculture plays a significant role in the economy of the Texas Panhandle. Cash receipts for agricultural production total approximately $4.8 billion, and agriculture has a regional economic impact of approximately $8.1 billion (Amosson et al. 2015). On average 590,089 irrigated hectares were planted across the 21 counties of the Panhandle * Bridget Guerrero [email protected] 1
Department of Agricultural Sciences, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX 79016, USA
Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Amarillo, TX 79106, USA
2
Water Planning Area (PWPA) from 2016 to 2018. Corn, wheat, and cotton account for the majority of irrigated hectares (USDA 2018). Agricultural production dominates water use in the area and is projected to account for 92% of total water use by 2020. The state of Texas develops a water plan every 5 years to evaluate expected regional water demands and supply over the next 50 years (Texas Water Dev
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