by On playas
This month I attended a Playa Field Day provided by Ogalla Commons at the civic center in Amarillo. Over the last 10 years or more, I’ve attended several of these field days but it had been a while since I’d been to one. They are usually held in other cities around the Panhandle, so there is a drive involved but this one was close and several presentations on the program looked interesting, so I put it on my schedule.
The first playa field day I attended Abigail went with me. She must have been in early grade school, and I’m not sure that one was sponsored by OC, but likely it was. Back then people didn’t think the playas provided much recharge of the Ogallala Aquifer. Now, they do. Also, back then people didn’t think the playas were all that important other than for wildlife when they had water in them. That has changed as people begin to understand our situation in this part of the world. Fact is, there isn’t much water, other than the Ogallala aquifer, which is being drained, and, to a lesser extent, the Docum formation, which is smaller and deeper. What’s more, there isn’t any feasible alternative source of water, such as a large river or lake. Amarillo and other cities do get water from Lake Meredith, the reservoir on the Candian River, but that isn’t abundant by in stretch.
Now a few towns around the area are facing shortages as the Ogallala gets used up, primarily by agriculture, which is the only reason a lot of the smaller towns in the Panhandle exist in the first place. I’m told the attitude held by many farmers is that they’ll just use the water until it runs out, which will probably be about the same time they themselves run out. Their children will have moved away, and they don’t think the lack of sufficient water to continue farming will be their problem. More and more people, farmers included, though, are getting on the playa bandwagon as they learn about these ephemeral ponds’ importance to the area.
If I recall correctly, there are about 80,000 playas on the Great Plains extending from South Dakota down into Texas and New Mexico, some 30,000 in Texas but only 4-5,000 or so are functioning. Most have been altered. It was common practice in the mid-20th century to dig pits in the playas to collect tail water, that being the water that ran off the fields when they were irrigated. The idea was to pump that water back up on the fields or use it to water livestock. Trouble is, digging through the clay pan, which is the cause of a playa, prevents the playa from functioning properly. In its natural state, when the playa dries up, large cracks form in the clay. When there is sufficient rainfall, the water runs into the playa and down through the cracks in the clay pan to eventually add to the aquifer. One of the myths about the aquifer is that the water in it is ancient water, but now people that study the recharge from the playas are saying that it is recharge from surface moisture, a slow, sometimes decades-long process.
As the playa fills from rain runoff, the clay absorbs the water and expands, eventually closing the cracks so it holds water for a period of time to the benefit of wildlife, including migrating water birds. There can also be recharge going on around the perimeter of the playa if there is sufficient rain so that the water extends beyond the perimeter of the clay pan. Studies have shown that natural grasses around the playa, extending out, say, 150 yards, act as a filter to remove agricultural chemicals and other contaminants, so the water winding up in aquifer is clean. The clay pan also removes contaminants, something to do with ionization, whatever that is.
There are now efforts to rehabilitate damaged playas by filling in tail-water pits. Ideally, the clay removed when the pit was dug is still around, usually bordering the pit, so it can simply be shoved back into the pit to fill it in. Where that clay isn’t available, clay could be brought from other areas, but that would be prohibitively expensive, so efforts to rehabilitate playas are focused on those with the clay near at hand. With the states help, landowners are offered money for allowing their playa’s to be rehabbed in return for not tampering with the playa again for at least 10 years. That program has been fairly successful.
After the morning’s programs and sandwiches, we drove out to a dry playa (most of them are due to draught conditions) near Randal High School in southwest Amarillo. There were some dried cattails in some areas, indicating the playa held water for an extended period of time the last time there was any water in it.
I was encouraged that the knowledge of and support for playas seems to be growing. Though I don’t think I’m directly affected by this, I like to think things are headed in the right direction for water sustainability in the area, something that should be of concern to my children and grandchildren.
Under the category of not judging a book by its cover, there was a woman of a certain age at the table where I sat that brought her knitting to work on while speakers were enlightening us. I made the mistake of thinking she had just wandered into the wrong room instead of the one where the homemakers anonymous meeting was going on. After the first speaker finished his presentation and was taking questions, someone put forth an intelligent-sounding question and the lady of whom I am writing raised her hand like the clever girl in a middle school class (there is always at least one, it’s the law) and I thought ,”Aw hell, here we go. She’s likely to hold forth for the next hour on who knows what.” After she gave a cogent answer to the question, I begin to think I had misjudged her. When there was a break in the festivities, I sought her out to verify what I thought she said about it being possible to canoe without portaging from Lazbuddy to the caprock during a wet spell in the 40’s. Turns out that is what she said, though she didn’t witness it personally, owing mostly to her not having been born yet. She was a nice person, and a PHD in geology and retired professor, most recently from Texas Tech. She told me about spectrometers and how you can determine where water came from by testing the ions in the molecules to an accuracy of one billionth, or something, and other stuff I can’t remember. Gosh, she was smart, thought I, as I slunk back to my seat.
AI and the Fed
Recently I read a column in the op-ed section of the Epoch Times about artificial intelligence. After the opening three or four paragraphs, the author confessed those paragraphs were written by ChatGPT, an AI tool that accomplishes various tasks. He said he typed into ChatGPT a request for information about AI and its future, stipulating that it be written in the style of, well, himself. The last paragraph he changed to the style of William Shakespear. That was pretty funny. There are dire predictions about the consequences of AI. Students having ChatGPT write their term papers is one. Authors, songwriters, lawyers, among others may have cause for concern. It might be easier to guess what occupations won’t be affected. I think semi-retired grounds keepers are safe. Maybe the Federal Reserve would be a good place to start.
It is hard to see how a robot could do worse than the Fed board of governors at setting interest rates. The Fed is supposed to be above (or immune to) politics, but from what I read it isn’t. Now if there a way to keep the political critters from tampering with the AI, no mean task, that, there might be some benefit to us common folk. Might be worth a try. If it works, it could be extended to the bureaucracy in general. If us poor shmucks are destined to take it on the chin, why not start with the unproductive class. In time, perhaps Leviathan could be shrunk down to handful of eunuchs which would allow us to live in relative peace and comfort.
Biden hears a WHO
Another thing to get righteously indignant over, the current administration’s effort to get in bed with World Health Organization, which wants to legally control national health policy of every country on Earth, and maybe beyond, will serve. The WHO would be able to say what is a health problem and dictate policy accordingly. But what could not be pretzeled into health hazard? Gun violence? A health problem which would require the, uh, removal of guns from general accessibility. Global warming/climate change? Certainly, that will have a deleterious effect on the health of everybody so extraordinary steps must be taken. Watermelons must be loosed on the land to tyrannize all for the good of all, or at least those in power. Funny how the Davos crowd seems to be so well healed. Maybe my invitation got lost in the mail. I call on Switzerland to quarantine Davos and prevent those without Swiss passports, and some that do, from leaving.