Blog Archives
fresh water (in the rain)
If you want to get really worried about the future of water in places that are above the Ogalalla Aquifer, you could read Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, by Lucas Bessire.
Or you could look at the shifts in annual rainfall and think about how long it takes to recharge our aquifer. And think about how farmers are already moving away from growing certain high-water-consuming crops. (Who REALLY needs corn, anyway?)
Or you could think about how rural counties are falling all over themselves to get data centers to come here. And then think about how the data centers claim their eventual water usage will be “about the same as two houses.”
And maybe, sometime in the future you can think fondly about the days where there WAS fresh water out.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 6.14.2026
everything will run out
Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Crosby County, isn’t visible from the highway. To get there, you drive past a farmhouse and down a narrow dirt path called Dump Ground Road. Most of the graves are unnamed. Most of the people buried there are black. So that’s one thing to think about.
And the other thing to think about is how this part of the state sits atop the Ogalalla Aquifer, whose water is pumped out (mostly for irrigation) at a rate that far outpaces its replenishment. (Want to know more? Read Running Out: in search of water on the high plains by Lucas Bessire.)
Anyway, somethings things line up in a particular way that shifts your brain around and lets you think about it all in a different way.
Crosbyton, Texas
photographed 7.28.2024
One Day | One Image 