DUMAS, Texas (KVII) — The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service team conducted a study and found around 80% of the nation’s water consumption is for agriculture.
Finding and highlighting methods to save and reduce demand on a renewable resource like groundwater is the focus of this week’s Water Grows, as a collaboration between the City of Dumas and a farmer is becoming a trend for the future.
“We use this water straight from lagoons straight onto the crops,” said Harold Grall, ag producer.
Since May during this year’s growing season, local ag producers have been able to get 38 million gallons of water from the City of Dumas and apply that 38 million gallons of water to crops. This means he’s not having to extract that water from the Ogallala Aquifer or wells underneath.
“Every straw that’s in the ground sucking out of the aquifer causes problems for everybody else so the more that we can put in so that they don’t have to pull out of the aquifer the better it is for the citizens of Dumas and the Panhandle,” said Bob Brinkmann, mayor of Dumas.
It’s not water for humans to drink it’s water for agricultural use.
“About five years ago we had to re-permit because they made some changes with the water treatment plant which allowed us to pump a lot better water,” said Grall.
“He contracts with us and pays us for an amount that he uses and works good for him because he’s not having to pull it out of the ground with expensive wells and that nature,” said Brinkmann.
“It’s a great opportunity to use a quality of water that doesn’t have to be chlorinated and cleaned to drinking water standards,” said Steve Walthour, retired general manager of North Plains Groundwater Conservation District. “We support that effort everywhere in the Panhandle.”
Wastewater, if treated properly, can provide nutrients for plant growth. Different varieties of Sorghum grow from the treated water as the need to feed a growing population increases.
“The only thing that has changed over the last couple of years is the 50-year contract with the city and the Powell family has ended we’ve purchased the property so now we’re paying for the water,” said Grall. “It’s at a rate that it costs us to pump water from the Ogallala on our other operations.”
This type of innovation expands agriculture’s supply of usable water.
