By Amy BickelKansas Agland
HOXIE – Roch Meier is a 60-year-old farmer who doesn’t beat around the bush.
He has long known his way of farming wasn’t going to last forever.
Convincing others that something had to be done to stop the disappearing reservoir beneath their crop fields, however, was a challenge.
“When it comes to saving water I don’t care who is in the room,” he said, noting he is thinking of his children and grandchildren’s future on the farm. “I just tell them what I think.”
Across western Kansas, rainfall isn’t enough to grow big crops like corn. Farmers depend on the vast Ogallala Aquifer for their survival. However, with water users drawing out more than nature can replenish, that pool of water is shrinking, putting an economy centered on water at risk.
But in a small 99-mile section of Sheridan County and one township in Thomas County, farmers, including Meier, began to do something unprecedented for western Kansas: Rather than do nothing and mine the aquifer, they agreed to reduce their water use over five years by an average 20 percent, fearing that if they don’t, they might be the final generation to grow crops on this parcel of the High Plains.
Now, three years into the plan, Meier and others are proving naysayers wrong. The Local Enhanced Management Area, or LEMA, the first measure of its kind in Kansas, is working. State officials report that the water table, which had been dropping rapidly each year for decades, is now showing a slight increase.
“I’d rather irrigate 10 inches a year for 30 years than put on 30 inches for 10 years,” Meier said. “I want it for my grand kids.”
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