I have written on a number of occasions about the vast water resources available to Southeast Missouri producers. When I arrived in Southeast Missouri in 1990 to accept the agronomy specialist position in Dunklin County, it didn't take me long to realize that Southeast Missouri was unique in crop production compared with the rest of the state. At that time, seven of the top ten counties for row crop production were located in Southeast Missouri. With our alluvial soils and groundwater resources, we have many advantages over the rest of the state and we compare favorably with the entire delta states.
In the early 1990's, I met Jim Vandyke with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Groundwater Program who presented a program about our groundwater resources. I will never forget one of the statements that he made. He said that we could put center pivots on all of our agricultural land in Southeast Missouri and not seriously deplete our groundwater.
Jim has retired, but the current section chief, Scott Kaden, spoke at this year's certified crop advisor program, also gave encouraging news for agricultural producers. He told the crop advisors that the alluvial aquifer that covers most of Southeast Missouri has so much water that we could go 62 years of irrigation without having any recharge. That's a lot of water. Now some of this water is very deep and would be expensive to pump but it could be available.
This is certainly not the case in the rest of the United States and around the world. It is estimated that 40 percent of the world's population could be under severe water stress by 2020. That is only 7 years away. In the United States, about one third of all counties (about 1,100) will be at risk for fresh water by 2050 with at least 400 of these in the extremely high risk category.
From 1940 t0 2011, the world's population has tripled but water consumption has quadrupled. According to a U.S. State Department document released on World Water Day last year, the need for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030.
With the water scarcity developing, the answer is water management. There are many countries around the world that have very good action plans to use less water. For example, Australia requires different toilets that will use less water than we have in the United States. There is a button that will use less water for urination. Less water is used for showers. Many residences have showers only and some are set with a timer. So water management is taught in schools and at home.
In the United States, there is a battle for water rights. Cities and agriculture often clash over water. With ethanol using so much water, there is a concern about the federal legislation requiring biofuels to replace so much petroleum. So there will continue to be problems in the United States and around the world in establishing priorities for water use.
Fresh water constitutes just 2.5% of all water on earth, and in many ways it is not fully renewable in our lifetime, nor infinite in quantity. Many aquifers are being drawn down at rates as high as 250 times their ability to recharge. Deep groundwater aquifers that took tens of thousands of years to form are rapidly being drained in many areas of the world, such as the North China Plain, the Ogallala in the High Plains of the U.S., the Columbia River Basin in Washington state, and California's San Joaquin Valley.
The Ogallala Formation underlies about 80 percent of the High Plains and is the principal geologic unit forming the High Plains Aquifer. About 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States overlies this aquifer system, which yields about 30 percent of all ground water used for irrigation in the United States. The aquifer system supplies drinking water to 82 percent of the 2.3 million people (1990 census) who live within the boundaries of the High Plains study area. This major aquifer is going dry. The people who use this major water supply have been "mining" it for many years since it is not being recharged. There are areas of California where some major agricultural areas are no longer in production because the water has been diverted for the cities. There were thousands of jobs lost in these agricultural communities.
A major concern for drinking water is contamination. In teaching water quality education, I often refer to a National Geographic special water edition. In 1968, the city of St. Louis, Missouri added a treatment plant. Prior to that about 300 million gallons of waste (sewage) were dumped directly into the Mississippi River every day. Recently, after flooding in the St. Louis area, about 60 million gallons of raw waste were not cleaned because there was no electricity. It was discharged into the great river.
Additionally, increasing amounts of chemical substances (e.g., birth control pills, illegal drugs, insect repellent) are being found in drinking water even after passing through water treatment facilities. While there are likely implications to human health, thus far research has been too limited to convincingly demonstrate it.
Some environmentalists are concerned about the consumption of meat since so much water is required for animal products. For example, producing a pound of meat requires approximately 50 times more water than producing a pound of vegetables, fruits, or grain for us to eat directly. Between 1,700 and 4,000 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of beef, 880 gallons to produce one gallon of milk, and over 100 gallons to produce a single egg. Regardless of what the fresh water is used for, we need to do a better job of managing it if we want to sustain our lifestyle. We have a very limited supply.
University of Missouri Extension programs are open to all.