JIM RICHARDSON

The Ogallala Aquifer is a great body of groundwater underlying much of eight states in the American Midwest. As the main source of water in an otherwise dry land it takes on huge economic and political importance. With heavy irrigation use beginning after WWII to water expanding grain production in the area water levels began to drop, a process that has only accelerated in recent decades despite periodic efforts to reform water policy and make the aquifer sustainable. With abundant grain came expanding cattle feedlots and huge been packing plants, transforming the economies of places like Dodge City, Kansas. With declining water levels the future of the region will eventually be at risk; in some places; dryland crops are already replacing irrigation because of the high cost of pumping water from deep wells. These images come from my coverage published in the March 1993 issue of National Geographic