Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Bubbleds mesmerize a young girl who is bathed by her mother in a bucket filled with water hauled from town since their well has run dry.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families on the fringes feel it. For several years, approximately 30 families near Clovis, NM,  have no longer been able to get water from their wells. They carry water home that they need for cooking and bathing.  This two-year old has a bubble bath sharing precious water with a family of nine that requires 105 gallons a day.<br />
<br />
County Road 5 is the canary in the coal mine for Ogallala depletion. Just across the state line from here are 88,000 wells in the Texas panhandle. Those wells use approximately 200 gallons a minute according to HPWD. When they started irrigating, the wells poured out 1000 gallons a minute.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432805.TIF
  • Brown water drizzles from the faucet on a depleted cattle water tank on a farm in Texas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481179.JPG
  • Players wear orange jerseys at an irrigated football practice field in New Mexico. Texas has 88,000 unregulated well heads just across the border depleting the aquifer, making this maintenance difficult.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481173.JPG
  • A rancher struggles to fill a depleted cattle water tank on a farm in Texas because of drought and a dwindling aquifer from burgeoning agricultural use.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481176.TIF
  • It's playtime before bedtime for a family in Clovis. They are one of 30 homes who have a a dry well because of heavy agricultural and industrial use. They all share a need for water from the Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481197.JPG
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. It requires a lot of time and work to bring home enough for 100 gallons a day for their personal use to cook and bath.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481193.JPG
  • Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more dependent on them after the water runs out.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481078.TIF
  • A woman pours water in the kitchen sink to wash dishes. The family who has a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481186.JPG
  • A harvester works a field cutting crops near Hoxie KS and Imperial NE.<br />
<br />
Clouds of dirt fly into the air where farming can be a challenge as small owners and agricultural corporations are subject to drought and climate change as well as the whims of nature.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481063.JPG
  • A dilapidated center pivot irrigation system in a field outside an abandoned school. Areas in NM near the edge of the Ogallala were the first to run out of water.<br />
<br />
 The original Wheatland School burned in April 1938. It was replaced by a new school building and gymnasium built by the WPA. The new buildings, reinforced with steel and plastered inside, used multicolored rock from a nearby quarry. A duplex teacherage was also built at the same time. Completed in 1939, the buildings were only used as a school until the early 1950s, after which they were used as a community center for a time before being abandoned.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481177.JPG
  • Empty containers fill the back of a pick up truck as a  family with a dry well carries water for their home use in five-gallon buckets. They  and 30 other families rely on this water for cooking and bathing since they no longer have running water in their home in Clovis, New Mexico.<br />
A $160 million pipeline project from the Ute reservoir may help relieve the situation although communities are still finding ways to curb consumption.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-10.TIF
  • A woman with a dry well cooks with water from a container. The family hauls water in a pick up truck for personal use cooking and bathing. Wells run dry for about 30 nearby families from heavy agricultural use from the Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481192.JPG
  • A mother and her son hand over buckets and jugs of water into the house. The family has a dry well and hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for their personal use. Around 30 families are effected by heavy agricultural and industrial use of the shared Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481196.JPG
  • A family with a dry well living in Clovis, New Mexico. About 30 families are without water from drought and heavy agricultural use that pumps from the Ogallala Aquifer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481187.JPG
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481184.JPG
  • Wide empty streets in the town of Portales, New Mexico, a community that is buying agricultural wells to supply residents homes and businesses. The city has conservation efforts in effect to reduce consumption.<br />
<br />
Water levels in the Ogallala aquifer below Clovis, Portales, and surrounding communities have declined in excess of 100 feet in the past decades. In addition to the decline in water level (as much as 2 feet per year in some places), there is evidence of deteriorating water quality.<br />
<br />
The long term water supply appears more promising because of a pipeline that may bring supplies from the Ute reservoir to help.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481180.TIF
  • Dust rises from roads that bisect a dry wheat field between two feedlots. <br />
Drought conditions intensify throughout the great plains for the past ten years with some parts of the state having "extreme drought" conditions.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481065.TIF
  • Tractors pack down a giant mound of corn and milo being stored at a feedlot near Imperial, Nebraska. Pressure builds to complete the work before storm clouds roll in and ruin the crop.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481061.TIF
  • Wind energy generates new income for farmers who have lost earnings as their wells dry up.<br />
Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432807.TIF
  • Muleshoe, Texas is only one of the small towns that struggle in rural Texas where the water has been mined out by irrigation. All you have to do is look at Google Earth and you see the swath of brown earth where Muleshoe is on the map.
    MM8429_20151025_23547.tif
  • A woman carries carries buckets into her house.  The family has a dry well and hauls water in jugs and five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for cooking and bathing.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481288.TIF
  • Tractors pack down a giant mound of corn at a feedlot near Imperial, Nebraska, before storm clouds roll in.<br />
The $24 million USD pile of corn will be consumed by 53,000 cows in a matter of months. A press to get the corn under cover creates a crazed tractor rodeo harvesting corn and red milo before the storm. Much of the region’s corn, a thirsty, irrigated crop, is grown to fatten cattle. This mound eventually stretched 300 feet long containing five million bushels. <br />
<br />
Farmers with bedspring corrals are long gone. Big AG WON. A Darwinian dwindling of rural areas survived the Dust Bowl and the family farm crisis, and now they are facing the end of easy water. But BIG AG is still here to stay and will remain with feed lots like this one even after the easy water is gone.<br />
The math on the corn: 24 million USD is 5.25 million bushels or around $3.80 a bushel.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432803.TIF
  • In a county that was littered with post offices, there are now only 5 left.  Durward Dixon, Mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. When they lay internet cables in Elida and break the water line, the mayor and the judge run out to the edge of town to turn off the water supply and then help fix the broken main. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40's and 50's like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their milk cows. The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses - huge farms of wind machines.
    MM8429_20160307_30356.tif
  • A family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need 100 gallons a day to meet their needs. <br />
30 families can no longer get water from their wells since the Ogallala aquifer is running low after being pumped for agricultural use.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481183.TIF
  • Children in a family with a dry well hauls water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481182.TIF
  • Flooded fields after a rain in Ingalls, Kansas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481039.JPG
  • You can see the building thunderhead in the background at this Imperial NE feedlot where workers are in the middle of a corn rodeo as many huge machines try to put up feed and corn and get it covered before the storm. Imperial has around 53,000 head of cows and the mountain in this photo is all CORN... about 24 million USD of corn in 2015 prices. 5.25 million bushels (around $3.80 a bushel in 2015).
    MM8429_20151020_21196.tif
  • Small towns struggle in the region, where the Ogallala aquifer is pumped for irrigation. Businesses close their doors reflecting the downtown grain elevator.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481067.TIF
  • A harvester works cutting mature crops on straight rows in Hoxie KS and Imperial NE.<br />
<br />
Clouds of dirt fly into the air where farmers and ag corporations are subject to drought and climate change as well as the whims of nature.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2435370.JPG
  • Storm clouds build above the grain elevator and the town of Portales, New Mexico, a community without well water. Drought is taking its toll putting pressure on the aquifer shared by agriculture.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-2.TIF
  • Bedsprings once served as a corral near Elida, New Mexico.<br />
The mayor of Elida, Pop 200, blames the dearth of water. On the plains around them are signs of hard times in the 40’s and 50’s like the dairy that used old mattress springs as a containment area for their handful of milk cows. <br />
The signs of the future for this place loom over those mattresses – huge farms of wind machines. Farmers supplement their income now with wind leases and will be more.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481070-1.TIF
  • A family with a dry well carry water in five-gallon buckets and jugs in the back of their pickup truck.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481287.TIF
  • A neighborhood street where a family with a dry well loads up five-gallon buckets to carry water in the back of their pickup truck for home use. <br />
<br />
They are among 30 families affected by the amount of agricultural use of water from the Ogallala Aquifer. 88,000 wells across the nearby Texas panhandle pump 200 gallons a minute. <br />
<br />
These families rely on around 100 gallons a day for their needs and are hopeful for the pipeline from a reservoir 100 miles away that is being built will relieve the situation.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481285.TIF
  • A woman with a dry well cooks with water from a five-gallon container. They haul water in five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck. They need about 100 gallons of water they truck home for cooking and bathing.<br />
<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481190.JPG
  • A woman carries carries empty buckets from her house. The family has a dry well and hauls water in jugs and five-gallon buckets in the back of their pickup truck for cooking and bathing.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481188.JPG
  • Small towns struggle in the region, where the Ogallala aquifer is pumped for irrigation.<br />
<br />
Business is slow midday in downtown Muleshoe, Texas. A community founded in 1913 northwest of Lubbock, the name traces back to a ranch by that name in the late 1800s. Muleshoe expanded with the coming of the railroad and grew to a town of 5,000 residents in 1970. But small towns struggle in the region, and population declined. The once lively Main Street is quiet with abandoned buildings. <br />
<br />
Economic stress is intensified as the community’s water source, the Ogallala aquifer, is pumped for irrigation. Muleshoe can be described as a dying town that can’t keep its grain elevator full. Although to outsiders it looks bleak, the town claims the smallest TV station and the owners are truly kind.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2432804.TIF
  • A hose snakes through the front yard where a family with a dry well hauls water. They fill five-gallon buckets and jugs in the back of their pickup truck for their personal use.<br />
Agriculture is responsible for 95 percent of aquifer use and families at the fringes of the aquifer feel it. For four years now, approximately 30 families near Clovis have depended on water they haul although a pipeline may relieve the situation with water from the Ute reservoir nearly a hundred miles away.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8429_2481195.TIF