Matthew Staver for The New York Times

The small town of Boise City, Okla., which I wrote about in Wednesday’s Times, survived the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. But now it faces a confluence of dangers that could push it to the edge of extinction.

These include a record drought, a lack of economic development and a declining population. But another important factor that I did not have the space to discuss in the paper is the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies beneath the High Plains, including the Oklahoma Panhandle.

The aquifer, formed millions of years ago by rivers and streams, is “the single most important source of water in the High Plains region, providing nearly all the water for residential, industrial, and agricultural use,” according to the Water Encyclopedia.

It stretches under 174,000 square miles of eight states, from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, up through Kansas and Colorado and perhaps most significantly, Nebraska, where it feeds much of the state; it also feeds smaller portions of Wyoming and South Dakota



The Ogallala was first pumped 100 years ago to irrigate farms and ranches. People continue to use it as if it were a renewable resource, but of course it isn’t. It is being drained faster than nature can recharge it, especially in the most arid areas, like Boise City, where high winds accelerate the evaporation of what little moisture there is.

So the aquifer is dropping lower and lower, and some geologists fear it could dry up in as soon as 25 or 30 years. This is a major issue confronting not just those eight states but the entire country.

As one reader pointed out to me, “that aquifer will not be recharged until the next ice age.”

That could be a while. And by then, more than Boise City will be gone.