27% of Irrigated Land Is on Top of This Aquifer

RO Meeting 11-13-12

Roll: Elliott Wilder, Jason Counter, Tyler Robbins, Caitlin Atterberry, Eli May, Stephen Pierce.

Ogallalo Aquifer

·  27% of irrigated land is on top of this aquifer

·  30% of all United States water for irrigation comes from this

·  Provides drinking water to 82% of people within the boundaries

·  Located beneath the Great Plains

·  Covers 174,000 square miles

·  Wichita uses the portion called the Equus Bed.

The water is split up like so:

·  Irrigation – 50%

·  Cities – 24%

·  Industrial Use – 13% (Spirit falls in this category)

·  Recreational/Other – 3% (We aren’t really sure what goes in this category.)

·  10% is pulled away by the river systems

Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project

·  A complicated system to help replenish the aquifer

·  $550 million dollar cost

·  The year it was finished, Wichita had an above-average amount of rain and the system wasn’t used properly

o  Wichita was paying for nothing, basically.

·  Phase I is the only phase completed so far.

Kansas vs. Colorado

·  Going on since 1902

·  Fighting over rights to the water in the Arkansas river

o  It’s illegal in Colorado to own a rain barrel. This water is supposed to go to the river.

·  Last issue was in 2009

Purposes of the exhibit

·  Demonstrate that we are using more water than can be naturally replenished to the aquifer.

·  We want to show how to use less water from the environment

o  The aquifer

o  Rain water

o  Cheney Reservior

·  Show how re-using grey water (un-potable) will benefit the economy and city

·  Focus on water re-use

o  Show possible solutions to slowing or stopping aquifer depletion

§  For example, using not drinkable water for industrial use instead of drinking water.

·  We need to convince the city of Wichita that this is a good thing

o  As opposed to the city making less money because less water is being purchased.

o  We need to be sure to not make the city of Wichita look like bad guys.

·  Stephen thinks we should not change the original RO project too much, just give it a “facelift”.

EXHIBIT DEETS – Very general as we are still not sure on a lot of things

The Game:

·  Create your own adventure style

·  You are the mayor of Wichita

o  Which water source will you use?

o  You must make decisions about where to get water, what the price of it should be, etc.

The Aquifer:

·  Show how we can slow down aquifer depletion and why this is important

·  Will have time graduations to show depletion over time

·  Instead of using real water inside, maybe use a visualization projection?

Videos:

·  Slide shows/ videos or both – Stephen has some already made from previous presentations

·  Pictures can help people understand

·  Where should these be placed on the exhibit?

·  Our target audience is 13+, plan accordingly.

City Model:

·  What scale should we use? HO? N? Z?

·  How easy will this be to transport and how durable?

·  How much detail?

·  Tyler says the train-model buildings are durable enough for transporting frequently.

·  Possibly create a model of how the system works now, but add the purple pipe (Non-potable, or grey water) and show how this will effect things

Pipes:

·  Show where water is coming from and where it’s going

·  Possibly lit up with LEDS

·  Maybe colored tubing

·  We want to try to not use real water if possible. It’s very difficult. And messy.