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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />O[J'J2"r.' <br />... J;) <br /> <br />28 percent in the middle tier, and only 11 percent in the southern <br />tier. <br />As with number of wells, data for water in storage in 1980 are <br />not available at this writing. However, the Analytical Studies <br />cited herein projected 1980 storage in the late 1970s in reports <br />for each county, Because ~~tes of well develupment and pumping <br />are well known and irrigated acreage data are current for 1979. <br />the 1980 projections, compared below with 1974, are considered <br />very accurate. Table !V-5 shows a six-year decline of about six <br />million acre feet, suggesting that such a rate of use (and <br />assuming the same modest rate of recharge underlying these <br />projections) could extend current rates of irrigation fur another <br />45 years, all other factors remaining unchanged, Subsequent <br />information herein will show a slowing in the rate of decline for <br />various reasons, similar to the lower rate of 11,2 percent for the <br />southern tier of counties, where the necessity for conservation <br />is more widely recognized as the wells go dry or decline in <br />productivity, <br />Over the same span of years which has seen pumping of the aquifer <br />increase so rapidly, an institutional mechanism has worked <br />effectively to encourage the conservation and wise use of ground <br />water, The High Plains Underground Water Conservation District <br />No, I, created by the Texas State Board of Water Engineers (now <br />Texas Department of Water Resources) in 1950, and ratified by <br />popular vote in 13 counties in 1951, now operates over an area <br /> <br />!V-31 <br /> <br />Arthur D Little.lnc <br />