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<br />PROBLEMS AND NEEDS* <br /> <br /> <br />GENERAL <br /> <br />The High Plains area extends over vast parts of Colorado, Kansas, <br />Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the Great Plains land <br />resource region of mid-continental America. Much of the High Plains is <br />underlain by the Ogallala Formation, a major aquifer supplying most of <br />the water needs of the area's large agricultural economy. <br /> <br />The Ogallala Formation, of Tertiary age, is an unconsolidated <br />remnant of vast deposits of gravel, sand and silt eroded from the <br />ancestral Rockies. Erosion has reduced the area of the extensive <br />deposits that once covered all of the Great Plains region, leaving the <br />Ogallala as the principal geologic unit associated with the High Plains <br />tod ay . <br /> <br />The specific area encompassed by this Study includes 180 counties <br />in the 6-state region underlain in whole or in part by the Ogallala <br />Formation, which has an area of about 225,000 square miles. As a part <br />of the overall Study, the related economies of nearby cities including <br />Denver, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Lincoln and <br />Omaha must be considered. Peripheral aquifers which are interrelated <br />with the Ogallala must be taken into account. The interbasin transfer <br />studies will consider potential sources of water outside the Study <br />area. <br /> <br />*Excerpts taken from Interim Report, Six State High Plains-Ogallala <br />Aquifer Area Study, January 15, 1979 (prepared for U.S. Department of <br />Commerce, Economic Development Administration, by the Study General <br />Contractor Camp, Dresser & McKee, Inc.) <br /> <br />03 <br />