May 23, 2024 The Midwest Center For Investigative Reporting
How are Seaboard Foods' water needs affecting water resources?
Oklahoma’s panhandle is running out of groundwater. For decades, state officials have warned that the underground supply of water will someday be gone, comparing it to a savings account that is seeing too many withdrawals and not enough deposits.
But since 1995, when Seaboard Foods opened a major pork processing plant, the rate of depletion has intensified. For the past several months, Investigate Midwest researched water well data to find out how the hog industry and the state’s weak water laws are exacerbating a groundwater crisis in this important agricultural region.
This story examines the data and explains why some lawmakers are resistant to changing the state’s water laws. Even the governor recently vetoed a bill that would have helped the state better enforce the water limits that already exist.
“We just don't have the water to raise a good corn crop for much longer around here,” said Mike Shannon, city manager of Guymon, Oklahoma. “I mean, we do have it right now, but man, it's leaving us fast.”
— Ben Felder, Oklahoma reporter
How Seaboard Foods rebuilt the Oklahoma panhandle’s economy, ushering in a new era of groundwater depletion
By Ben Felder, Investigate Midwest
GUYMON, Oklahoma — Mike Shannon’s city hall office is a “war room” for water. Maps of wells and charts of usage rates cover the beige room's meeting table and desk. A large television screen mounted on the wall displays satellite images of a future groundwater well project. Coworkers visit throughout the day, often to talk about those plans to pump more water.
As city manager of Guymon — a town of about 13,000 in the state’s panhandle — Shannon oversees a network of 17 groundwater wells, all operating near capacity to draw water from the Ogallala Aquifer, the only water source in this arid region of tumbleweeds and sand dunes.
“Getting a call about (a broken well) in the middle of the night is what I fear most,” said Shannon, who has cropped gray hair, wears black-rimmed glasses and speaks with the hint of a western drawl. “If just one well broke or had to be shut off for repairs, it could cripple the entire system.”
Read more.
GRAPHIC: Agritourism income explodes across the Midwest, alongside a steady increase in operators
By John McCracken, Investigate Midwest
The number of farms that receive income from agritourism has steadily grown in the Upper Midwest over the last two decades.
At that same time, the agritourism industry has grown exponentially for farmers across most of the region, according to agriculture census data.
View the graphic.
OPINION: Expect pushback from Big Poultry, new lawsuits tied to DOL rule
By Dave Dickey, Columnist
Chicken farmers have long chafed at Big Poultry's tournament system where neighboring farms are pitted against one another.
Big Poultry says the system is all puppy dogs and blue skies.
It isn't.
Read more.
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Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public as a watchdog over influential corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism.
