National Public Radio is broadcasting a news report about a new water conservation effort, but not from Washington DC or southern California. Part of it came from the cab of a combine in Kansas.
They were reporting on an innovative water conservation initiative being led by northwest Kansas farmers.
Gary Moss is a fourth-generation farmer near Hoxie in Sheridan County, and a member of the advisory board for this water conservation project. Moss produces irrigated corn, soybeans and wheat and has a cow-calf herd.
Through the years, Moss has seen the significance of the Ogallala Aquifer, the huge underground water reservoir that underlies the western High Plains. He’s also seen groundwater levels fall.
In 1972, the State of Kansas created a state-level position of Chief Engineer and provided for groundwater management districts across the state. Over the decades, groundwater districts in some regions were seeing depletion of underground water.
Moss and other producers saw a need to get together in their part of northwest Kansas. “In 2008, we started holding meetings because the groundwater table was dropping pretty significantly,” he said. The group worked on ways to use water more efficiently, such as re-nozzling sprinklers.
