Ogallala Aquifer To Be Discussed At Kansas State Fair

Ideas for sustaining the Ogallala Aquifer will be discussed this weekend at the Kansas State Fair.

A Kansas State University group called the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy is organizing round-table discussions Sunday afternoon at the fairgrounds.

The Ogallala is an underground source of water locked inside gravel and sand hundreds of feet below the surface. It stretches across several states, from Nebraska to Texas, including about 30,500 square miles in western and central Kansas.

But water is being pumped out of it to irrigate crops faster than it can be replenished. The goal of the nonpartisan Kansas State group leading the discussion is to understand the issues and options.