The Ogallala and The Keystone

The Ogallala Aquifer is an American treasure.  Yet most Americans don’t know or care about it, for the Ogallala cannot be seen with the naked eye but only by an educated imagination.  If you drive across Nebraska heading for more gaudy treasures like Mount Rushmore or Grand Canyon, you might notice huge green crop circles of corn and soybeans.  An educated imagination might tell you that these crops are being irrigated by water that lies beneath the ground’s surface.  And they are—water from the Ogallala Aquifer.

And then if you knew the Ogallala contains approximately a million billion gallons of water, which is to say about 2.9 billion acre feet of water, you might begin to develop a sense of amazement about the Ogallala Aquifer. 

An aquifer, as you probably know, is not an underground lake but something like a huge underground sponge—made up of water, sand, silt, clay and gravel.  The Ogallala is the largest aquifer in the United States and one of the largest in the world.  It covers 174, 000 square miles and stretches beneath eight states, but 67% of its water is beneath the state of Nebraska.  If the water of the Ogallala were ever used up, it would take 6000 years to replenish it.

Ogallala-irrigated fields produce 15 % of America’s wheat and corn, and 25 % of its cotton.  But this production comes at a cost to the aquifer, for the irrigation taking place has diminished the amount of water in the aquifer to such an extent that some experts predict the aquifer could be nearly used up in 2050.

The good news is that many farmers are learning to use the water more wisely and frugally in order to sustain the life of the aquifer far into the future, but changing attitudes and farming practices has been a slow journey aided by technology, education, and hindered at times by a tradition of over-use.  The realization that the Ogallala has already been exhausted by over-irrigation at some of its farthest reaches has caused farmers to think twice about extravagant use of the water. Still, much needs to be done to guarantee the future of the aquifer even as its water is used more carefully.

But now there’s a new menace.

The Canadian government wants President Obama to approve the building of a pipeline to carry sand tar oil from Alberta, Canada through the heart of the United States—including Nebraska and the Ogallala Aquifer—and down to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. 

Many American concerned about global warming oppose the building of the pipeline arguing that the sand tar oil from Alberta is unusually dirty and the use of it will only increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Supporters of the pipeline state that “the environmental issues have been dealt with decisively by the final and fifth environmental-impact statement by the U. S. Department of State.”  Joe Oliver, Canada’s minister of natural resources, goes so far as to say that “not building Keystone would increase greenhouse gas emissions.”  It is true that the State Department report raises no major objections to the pipeline.  But it also acknowledges that the proposed pipeline could accelerate climate change.

And so, as with many contemporary issues, we seem to have two truths:  the pipeline will increase carbon emissions; the pipeline will not increase—but diminish--carbon emissions.

President Obama continues to declare that our nation’s best interest can only be served if the problem of carbon pollution is not exacerbated by building the pipeline. 

Meanwhile, some Nebraska farmers through whose farms the Keystone is scheduled to pass, are protesting the pipeline for a reason that is not related to carbon emissions and global warming.  They know that pipelines break, and they know that when the Keystone breaks, dirty oil will gush into their aquifer.

They have good reasons to fear a broken pipeline.  In the last few months there have been three pipeline breaks in North Dakota each one spilling thousands of gallons.  In March 2014 an Ohio Forest Preserve was awash in about 10,000 gallons of oil from a broken pipeline.  A broken pipeline led to a spill of over 500,000 gallons of oil in Arkansas in 2013.  A pipeline spill allowed 42,000 gallons to flow into the Yellowstone River in 2011.  And the litany of broken pipelines and dirty crude pollution could go on and on.

 

Of course the major argument in favor of the pipeline is that it will generate jobs and wealth.   Sadly this is almost always the argument that wins the day, but I hope that when President Obama makes his decision on the pipeline this summer, he decides to do what’s best for the creation and for the America my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be living in.  I hope he considers not only the climate change issue but also the broken pipeline issue.

 I hope he has educated his imagination sufficiently to imagine two possible Nebraskas in the future:  :  A Nebraska alive with healthy communities and growing things carefully watered by the waters of the Ogallala.  And, a Nebraska dusty, bleak and barren, its waters polluted by oil or exhausted by excessive use