Last week an OpEd in the New York Times called attention to the
agricultural activities damaging the Ogallala aquifer, both
depleting the aquifer by using water faster than it is replaced,
and polluting it with fertilizer and pesticides. The Ogallala
provides water to over a quarter of irrigated farmland in the
United States, and sprawls 174,000 square miles across eight
states from South Dakota to Texas. That water helps farmers grow
a lot of corn, and 40 percent of that corn is used to fuel our
cars. It takes about 8 ounces of ethanol to move an average car
one mile, but using irrigated corn from Nebraska to produce that
small glass of ethanol can take 30 gallons of water. Looks to me
like that’s a car with a serious drinking problem. Corn farming
is a leading cause of water pollution Pollution from corn
farming is a leading cause of water quality problems across the
country, but particularly in the corn-growing Midwest. High
fertilizer application rates means nitrogen and phosphorous are
running off into n