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too expensive to pipe in drinking water. While most homes still have access to drinking water, folks in the area expect these experiences to become much more common over the next 50 years.


Faced with this reality, producers in Wichita County are taking voluntary group actions to create a different future. Their effort began with a team of 11 producers and local leaders meeting in the basement of an area cattle feeder. They hired a pastor to facilitate a year of conversations — many of which were described as “difficult” — about sustaining water to preserve their economy, their community and their way of life.


Their effort bore fruit this year in a county-wide Water Conservation Area, which provides water management flexibilities to water right owners who work to conserve and extend their water supply.


With widespread partici- pation, the Wichita County WCA is expected to extend the irrigation horizon to 50 years. The hope is that technological advances during this time will make dryland agriculture sufficiently productive to sustain Wichita County communities after irrigation is no longer possible.


“What was never thought possible is now within our grasp: sustainable use of the Ogallala Aquifer is attainable.”


Matt Long, a co-organizer and participant in the Wichita County WCA, describes significant early progress toward this goal. “We are only a few months in,” Long says, “but already our WCA, through voluntary participation, has committed to saving enough water to support 22,000 people for one year.”


In Hoxie on July 18, 2017, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and state representatives met with local water leaders who have been instrumental in developing the Sheridan 6 LEMA and the Wichita County WCA. Governor Brownback congratulated producers for their successes.


“The data reveals that the voluntary efforts happening as a part of the 50-year Water Vision are being rewarded,” said Governor Brownback. “The Ogallala is replenishing itself faster than we previously knew. What was never thought possible is now within our grasp: sustainable use of the Ogallala Aquifer is attainable.”


“It’s all about leadership,” says Scott Foote, owner of Hoxie Feedyard, who hosted the event. “It’s doing the right thing and working with your neighbors, and now look what we accomplished together.”


Stephen Lauer has earned a master’s in community and regional planning from Iowa State University and is currently a graduate student at Kansas State University working toward a PhD in sociology.


Matthew Sanderson, PhD, is an associate professor of sociology at Kansas State University. He is a social scientist specializing in the social aspects of natural resource use and conservation.


For more information, see www.ogallalawater.org. irrigationtoday.org 19


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