Mr. COHEN. If you look at the High Plains Ogallala Aquifer a little more carefully, this is one of numerous products of the aquifer study. What is shown here by the color coding are declines in the water table since development began. This is as compared to the early 1980's.

The red indicates the area of greatest decline, the brown lesser decline, and the blues are areas of increasing water levels.

There is a great deal of groundwater in the High Plains Ogallala Aquifer. There was a great deal before pumpage began, and there's a great deal now.

In some parts of the aquifer, though, like in the Texas Panhandle, pumpage is very heavy, and in those areas the groundwater levels have declined significantly. That's had severe economic impact on the agricultural community in the southern High Plains.

One way of measuring that impact, as shown on the graph, is the number of acres irrigated per well. As water levels decline, the acreage decreased rather dramatically.

As a matter of fact, in some places the aquifer has been significantly dewatered, and in many cases the wells in fully 50 percent of the aquifer have gone dry. The cost of pumping has increased dramatically, and the economic viability of long term pumping in parts of the southern high plains has been questioned.

What has happened is that these experiences have been extrapolated to the High Plains aquifer as a whole, causing a great deal of concern. The concern is legitimate in some parts of the aquifer, but by and large the aquifer is in excellent shape.

As a matter of fact, in some areas the groundwater level has actually increased.

So, in total, the aquifer is in reasonably good shape. In places there are some specific problems.

Dr. PECK. Now, by request by Congress or passage of some legislation, we will be starting a special program for monitoring the water levels in the overall aquifer. We'll be preparing an annual report. This will use data from a host of agencies.

Mr. COHEN. This is the result of action by this Committee which instructed us to embark upon a program of annually reporting on the conditions within the High Plains Ogallala Aquifer. That effort is well under way.

NATIONAL WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Mr. YATES. What's the National Academy of Sciences reviewing in its evaluation of the pilot program on full scale water quality assessment?

Mr. COHEN. Well, we first talked about a National Water Quality Assessment-in fact it was first discussed publicly before this Committee-and we described a concept which we had been developing. As the result of actions taken by this Committee, we are now testing this concept in seven pilot areas.

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Mr. COHEN. Operation at the present time of what we envision—if it's technically and economically and otherwise feasible-is being able to provide positive answers to some of the questions that you've asked during this hearing and previous hearings. Who's doing what nationwide? My response to you is that there are very few systematic nationwide studies.

This is the model of one possible, systematic nationwide study. Some systematic approach is clearly needed. Whoever does it, and whatever the approach, it's going to be expensive. It's going to involve a great deal of effort. The position that we've taken at the present time is to test the feasibility, technical, economic and otherwise, using these seven pilot studies.

The National Academy of Sciences will be one of a series of entities which will advise, review, critique, and then make recommendations to the Geological Survey to the Administration, and to Congress as to whether or not this is a successful effort and whether or not it warrants support on a national scale.

Dr. PECK. We're scheduled to spend the next two years working very carefully with them. They'll give us advice and do a critique on that pilot program study.

Mr. YATES. Any information that should cause us any alarm at the present time?

Dr. PECK. Well, those studies are going forward. We have some preliminary information using available data, and we wish we could go into that, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. COHEN. Some of our preliminary results give some reason for concern, but some of the studies in the Illinois basin reflect some of the comments that I made about acid precipitation. So we're finding some problems-we know they're out there-and we're also finding some positive things.

Mr. YATES. What does that chart tell us?

Mr. COHEN. That is one of the seven pilot studies that are now underway, four of which are being conducted in surface water basins.

That chart shows essentially-well, the color codes are land use. Yellow is agriculture, green is forest, gray is urban. The chart shows how the data collection points-

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