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Ia <br />Program Background <br />Surface and groundwater supplies are vital resources that are under increasing pressures <br />to meet competing demands for water in the Western United States. Population growth, <br />shifts in water use, and historical patterns of groundwater withdrawal exceeding natural <br />recharge has led to widespread concern regarding the potential depletion of groundwater <br />resources. The High Plains States Groundwater Demonstration Program was initiated to <br />evaluate the potential for recharge of the High Plains Aquifer as one of the most extensive <br />and widely used groundwater sources in the United States. The program legislation was <br />ultimately modified to consider recharge projects in all 17 Western States. <br />The program legislation called upon Reclamation to assess the feasibility -of stabilizing or <br />regulating aquifer water supplies through applied recharge projects and other appropriate <br />investigations. Reclamation coordinated with the USGS, the EPA, and local sponsors to <br />construct small recharge demonstration projects using available surface water sources for <br />recharge to alleviate identified water supply problems and advance the understanding of <br />recharge technology. Reclamation also worked with the Western States Water Council <br />and the National Academy of Sciences to use experience gained from the demonstration <br />projects and nonprogram recharge activities to evaluate other technical feasibility issues <br />and institutional factors such as economic, legal, and regulatory considerations that could <br />influence future efforts to effectively implement artificial groundwater recharge. <br />Historical Perspective <br />In 1951, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 was established <br />to address the problems of rapidly falling water levels (Howe, 1978). National attention <br />on declining trends in regional Western aquifers was evident by as early as 1978, when the <br />Congress mandated USGS to develop a quantitative appraisal method for groundwater <br />systems, resulting in the Regional Aquifer- System Analysis method. A few years later, <br />USGS reported on the status of the High Plains Aquifer (Gutentag et al., 1984). Other <br />previous and successive studies indicated progressive depletion of Western aquifers and <br />prompted the Congress to assess these issues with final passage of the High Plains States <br />Groundwater Demonstration Program Act of 1983 (P.L. 98 -434, 1984). <br />Program Summary Report Part l — Overview, Results, and Findings 2.1 <br />