The World

Ode to Ogallala

A Kansas writer on America’s giant, underappreciated and overexploited groundwater formation.

Many environmentalists applauded when President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline plans. But Kansas writer Julene Bair wants to know why it took a major pipeline to draw attention to the crucial Ogallalla aquifer. She asks whether that attention will last, or dry up as quickly as it materialized.