WSP10064

• File Number: 8112.600
• Description: Arkansas White Red Basins Interagency Committee - AWRBIAC -- Reports
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 4/1/1977
• Title: Technical Memorandum -- Activity 3 Phase II -- Specific Problem Analysis - 1975 National Assessment -- Arkansas-White-Red Region Part 1 of 2
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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land. There are 67 wells approved for pumping from the Ogallala
formation. Their appropriation is for a total annual withdrawal
of 37,900 acre-feet. The actual annual withdrawal is estimated
to be about 37,000 acre-feet. The saturated thickness of the
Ogallala formation ranges mostly between 50 and 150 feet, except
where it tapers to zero along the western edges. Depth to water
table is normally less than 100 feet. In Prowers County and
northern Kiowa County, the water tables have fallen about 10 to
20 feet in the last 15 years. In central Kiowa County, the water
tables have remained constant, primarily because of recharge from
many small lakes in the area.

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The Southern High Plains Designated Basin includes about
126,000 acres of the High Plains in southeastern Prowers County
in ASA 1102. There are 95 wells in the Basin approved for the
irrigation of 21,000 acres of cropland, of which approximately
8,400 acres are being irrigated by withdrawals from the Ogallala
formation. The total appropriation for groundwater withdrawal
is 73,500 acre-feet. The total actual annual withdrawal is esti-
mated to be 44,100 acre-feet. The capacity of the wells range
from 400 to 2,000 gallons per minute. The saturated thickness
in the Basin varies from 40 to 100 feet. The depth to the water
table is less than 120 feet. During the period 1968-73 inclusive,
the water tables, in general, have fallen 10 to 15 feet due to
withdrawals for irrigation.

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The Southern High Plains also includes Baca County which has
a total area of 1,640,000 acres in ASA 1103, of which about
1,500,000 acres are High Plains. There are 975 wells irrigating
126,750 acres from an annual withdrawal of 266,175 acre-feet.
The depth to water ranges from about 30 to 160 feet. In some
areas near Springfield and the Kansas line the groundwater
levels have fallen 30 to 40 feet during the last 4 or 5 years.

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The economic value of converting non-irrigated cropland to
irrigated cropland was developed in a study made by the State of
Nebraska, published in 1974, Nebraska Economic and Business Report
No.8. It was concluded in the study that the increase in the
net on-farm income was $50.00, 1967 prices, and the induced and
the stemming-from economic value was 6.58 times the on-farm value,
or $329.00 per acre. Based on $379.00 per acre, the economic
value for irrigation of a total of 166,000 acres in the High
Plains, ASA's 1102 and 1103 amounts to $62,914,000 per year.

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KANSAS

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I. High Plains Groundwater Irrigation (Ogallala), ASA 1103.
The Ogallala geologic formation, a series of rock layers de-
posited during Pliocene time some 20 million years ago, is the

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