Aquifers are the primary source of drinking water for up to two billion people. To avoid overexploitation, lengthy renewal periods of some aquifers must be taken into account. The lengthy ...

TOPEKA, Kan. (Kansas Reflector) Aquifer levels in parts of western Kansas that rely on groundwater for everything from drinking to irrigation fell more than a foot last year, Kansas Geological ...

But the water is disappearing. Industrial agriculture on the Great Plains began in the 1950s when mechanized pumps and sprinkler irrigation systems allowed trillions of gallons of water to be pulled ...

As a result, in parts of western Kansas, the aquifer has declined by more than 60 percent during that period. In some parts, it is already exhausted. The decline is steady now, dry years or wet.

Large parts of the region have seen more than half ... And Kansas State University predicts that in 75 years, almost all of the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas could be depleted. For someone like ...