Map: The Ogallala Aquifer: A Freshwater Bonanza in Decline. Click image to enlarge. This map was created by graphic designer Erin Aigner, with research assistance from Brett Walton of Circle of Blue.

We have come to assess the aquifer’s health ... By 1820 the territories that became Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma had been condemned on maps as the Great American Desert, but the cruelest ...