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<br />This simultaneous decline of the groundwater and energy resource <br />base of the High Plains area predictably threatens major adverse <br />impacts in the area's socioeconomic structure. These impacts would be <br />felt early in reduced levels of income by the labor force directly <br />involved with irrigation enterprises and associated agribusinesses, and <br />in reduced revenues to local, state and Federal governments from <br />property, income and other taxes. Integrity of long-term investments <br />would be jeopardized. Experience elsewhere indicates the immediate <br />adverse impacts would occur in the viability of small towns and <br />communities dependent almost exclusively on the irrigated economy of the <br />region. Public costs would increase as the result of the need for <br />increased support for job training, income support, and other welfare <br />costs for the unemployed or underemployed. <br /> <br />Of equal importance--the rich economic and social contribution of <br />this region to the national well-being would be endangered. The <br />contribution of the regional agricultural production to the nation's <br />position in world trade would be seriously limited. <br /> <br /> <br />There are choices, however, remaining for the future of this <br />region. The resource base is not gone, although it has been <br />significantly diminished. The world energy crisis has caused here--as <br />elsewhere-- major cost price maladjustments. The economy is still <br />healthy--but is tied to a reliance on declining resource support and <br />increasing costs of inputs. <br /> <br />The problem, then, is to determine how, to what extent, and by what <br />actions by whom the irrigated agricultural economy of the High Plains <br />can be sustained (or perhaps expended) and the economic vitality of the <br />region maintained. Fora detailed analysis of the economic effects of <br />the Ogallala Aquifer, the reader is referred to the report, "Six State <br />High Plains Ogallala Aquifer Regional Resources Study" prepared by the <br />High Plains Associates and dated March, 1982. <br /> <br /> <br />D6 <br />