With all these June rain showers popping up across the state, many of our tomato plants seem to be doing great. That is, when the wind doesn't knock the poor things down. In our drives up and down the roadways, we're seeing a lot of healthy gardens in Arkansas yards. And we haven't seen any brown lawns yet, either.
Farther below, however, it's all a different story.
The feds issued another geological survey last week. And it shows that Arkansas continues to be one of the biggest users of underground water.
Most of the state's water is used to irrigate farmland. So much so that the feds say Arkansas drew off the second-most amount of groundwater for irrigation in the United States in 2015, second only to California.
California.
If California were a nation unto itself, it'd be the fifth largest supplier of food in the world. It grows things other states cannot, such as almonds and olives. It's the No. 1 dairy state in the United States. If it were a country, it'd be the fourth-largest exporter of wine.
And Arkansas is right behind it when it comes to pulling water from our aquifers. (Arkansas drew off 9.3 billion gallons a day in 2015; California drew 13.9 billion.)
Some of that is good news: Arkansas is feeding the world, too. But we've got to do something about how much water we're using. Because the experts have a word for what we're doing:
Unsustainable.
Aquifers can collapse. And will if, for decades, humans pump more water out of them than the rainy days can replace.
Ecologists and economists call it the Tragedy of the Commons. If there's a common resource used by a lot of people, and everybody just wants to take a little more of it for himself, eventually the commons will disappear--and everybody loses. The classic example is of shepherds grazing their animals in the same meadow, but the lesson applies to water, too.
Farmers have got to start relying more on surface water for their crops. Your newspaper noted over the weekend that many farmers aren't taking advantage of certain tax-credit programs offered by the government to implement certain projects or pay for new technology. Maybe, some say, only because farmers don't know about said programs. The state has promised a PR campaign. Also, those reservoir projects at Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto need to be finished soon.
Arkansas has time. But not all the time in the world. In a few decades, something could go very wrong down below. And the commons would be ruined.
Things need to happen now. And, as a farmer might say, we need to hurry every chance we get.
Editorial on 06/27/2018