One of the positive outcomes of the AI data center coming to Richland Parish has been the attention drawn once again to the woeful state of some of Louisiana’s underground aquifers, which many homes, industries, farmers, and others rely on as their primary water sources.  The Sparta Aquifer, as we mentioned in a past essay, continues to be depleted, and this has been confirmed again very recently by Kaitlin Maness in The Ouachita Citizen.

But this problem extends beyond Louisiana into other Southern States.  Arkansas has recently acknowledged the dire straits some of their counties are in, specifically those served by the Sparta and the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifers:

‘The general trend in Arkansas’s long-term water level change is that the groundwater levels are declining in response to continued withdrawals at rates which are not sustainable. Based on 2015 water use data, only approximately 44.2 percent of the current alluvial aquifer withdrawal of 7,636.08 million gallons per day, and approximately 55 percent of the Sparta aquifer withdrawal of 160 million gallons per day is sustainable. At these pumping rates, water level declines and the adverse impacts on the state’s groundwater system will continue to be observed’ (Arkansas Dept of Agriculture, ‘2022 Arkansas Groundwater Protection and Management Report’, p. i, agriculture.arkansas.gov).

Miss Maness clarified in her article linked above that it is this same Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer that will feed the Meta data center in Richland Parish rather than the Sparta Aquifer.  This is good news for folks depending on the Sparta, but it is likely the beginning of a nightmare for the folks who depend on the MS River Alluvial Aquifer in Richland.  Thus far, aquifer levels have held steady there, thanks to sparser population levels and a lack of heavy industrial demand.  If the Meta center and the adjoining power plant become operational, residents will have to monitor those levels diligently.  The experience of parishes and counties in north Louisiana and south Arkansas are clear evidence that sustained use without any plan to replenish the aquifers will damage the long-term viability of them.

But let’s turn our attention to another Southern State, one where things usually work fairly smoothly:  Texas.  Yet even there, groundwater depletion has become a major issue:

‘Texas cities and suburbs are growing rapidly: The state now boasts six of the 10 fastest growing counties in the U.S., and it gained more residents than any other state in 2023.

‘However, that growth puts the state’s population centers on a collision course with looming shortages in water and, potentially, electricity. Texas’s agriculture commissioner has warned that large swaths of the state are “out of water,” and grid managers have warned that a 2021-style freeze would lead to blackouts like those that left millions of homes and businesses without power that year and contributed to the deaths of hundreds of Texans.

‘The rapid rise in demand for water and electricity coupled with straitened supplies is perhaps the biggest long-term problem facing Texas’s infrastructure and governance, and it’s likely to be of prime importance when the state’s 2025 legislative session begins next month.

‘When it comes to water, all eyes are on forthcoming legislation from Lubbock-area state Sen. Charles Perry (R), who has warned that the state is short about 10 to 11 million acre-feet of water — about twice the amount currently used by its cities — and proposed the creation of a state “water grid” modeled on the electric grid’ (Saul Elbein , ‘What’s next for Texas? 4 major questions looming for the divided state in 2025’, thehill.com).

Other regions are also threatened by the loss of groundwater resources.  The Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains has been under strain for decades now:

‘The Kansas Reflector’s Allison Kite and Kevin Hardy reported Monday that “disappearing water” in the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from South Dakota to Texas, “is threatening more than just agriculture. Rural communities are facing dire futures where water is no longer a certainty. Across the Ogallala, small towns and cities built around agriculture are facing a twisted threat: The very industry that made their communities might just eradicate them.”

‘“Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly acknowledges some communities are just a generation away from running out of water,” Kite and Hardy reported. “But she said there’s still time to act. ‘If they do nothing, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences,’ Kelly said in an interview.”

‘The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the most crucial water sources in the United States for both agricultural production and for daily water use in households. According to Oklahoma State University, “approximately 14 percent of the total aquifer area consists of irrigated acres capable of producing $7 billion in crop sales. The Ogallala aquifer provides one-fourth of the total water supply used for agricultural production across the U.S.”

‘Kite and Hardy report that that adds up to “20% of the nation’s wheat, corn, cotton and cattle production and represents 30% of all water used for irrigation in the United States.”

‘ . . . Concerns about the water level of the Ogallala Aquifer are nothing new. Scientific American’s Jane Braxton Little reported on the need to save the water in the aquifer in March 2009.

‘“The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to these fields, is disappearing. In some places, the groundwater is already gone,” Braxton Little wrote. “This is the breadbasket of America — the region that supplies at least one fifth of the total annual U.S. agricultural harvest. If the aquifer goes dry, more than $20 billion worth of food and fiber will vanish from the world’s markets.”

‘ . . . “Since the mid-20th century, when large-scale irrigation began, water levels in the stretches of the Ogallala underlying Kansas have dropped an average 28.2 feet farther below the surface, far worse than the eight-state average of 16.8 feet,” Kite and Hardy wrote. “Water levels in Texas, where the Ogallala runs under the state’s panhandle, have dropped 44 feet. New Mexico has seen a 19.1-foot decline. In Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming, the water level has declined less than the eight-state average, while in South Dakota it has risen”’ (Ryan Hanrahan, ‘Ogallala Aquifer Depletion Threatening Rural Communities & Ag’, farmpolicynews.illinois.edu).

Then there are the problems associated with the drying of the Colorado River.

News like this makes us scratch our head a bit when we hear President Trump proclaim an expansionist US foreign policy, complete with mammoth territorial acquisitions (like Canada and Greenland).  We have existential problems here at home that need tending to, like groundwater scarcity.  How will the acquisition of new territory, or more arms to Taiwan, or a new missile base in Poland, etc., solve those problems?  Diverting our attention away from our domestic problems with overseas adventures/distractions is how we got ourselves into the present horrible situation.

Now is not the time to try to repeat the rapid expansion of US influence around the world that began with the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19^th century.  What is needed now in the States is a turn toward introspection, a strengthening of the vital forces rather than a wasting of them in foreign lands.  The Tokugawa era of Japanese history (1603-1868) is one that the US would do well to imitate at this moment.  That was the period when Japan cut off nearly all communication with the other peoples of the world, and pacified divisions within.  This period of quiet greatly strengthened her, and she emerged as a great power in the world in the decades that followed (a comparable period in US history would be the time between the end of Reconstruction and the start of SpanAm War).  The States need something like this now, not more attempts at domination abroad.

Such weighty considerations aside, it is all the more appropriate to turn our attention to our depleted waters at this time, for January 6^th is the ancient Feast of Theophany in the Orthodox Church, the celebration of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River by John the Forerunner and the revelation of the Holy Trinity.  The Baptism of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ marks the moment of the sanctification of the waters, making them capable of renewing mankind’s original glory, the garment he wore of God’s Uncreated Light, which he lost at the Fall:

‘Since the Son of God has taken human flesh and has appeared in the world, manifesting Himself in His baptism in the Jordan, all flesh and all matter is sanctified. Everything is made pure and holy in Him. Everything which is corrupted and polluted by the sinful works of men is cleansed and purified by the gracious works of God. All death-dealing powers of the devil which poison the good world of God’s creation are destroyed. All things are again made new. Through the ‘prime element’ of water on the feast of Theophany the entire creation is shown to be sanctified by God’s Word through the same Spirit of God who “in the beginning…was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2)’ (Fr Thomas Hopko, quoted in Fr Steve Tussing, ‘Theophany: Sanctification for the World’, salemorthodoxchurch.org).

‘Prepare, O Zebulon, / and adorn yourself, O Naphtali; / river Jordan, cease flowing / and receive with joy the Master coming to be baptized. / Adam, rejoice with our First Mother / and do not hide yourself as you did of old in Paradise; / for having seen you naked, / He has appeared to clothe you with the first garment. / Christ has appeared to renew all creation’ (‘Forefeast of the Theophany of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – Troparion & Kontakion’, Lives of the Saints for 4 January 2025, oca.org).

Yet what water will we bless if all of our land becomes a dry desert?  And how will we recognize that the time has come to celebrate the Great Blessing of the Waters if our eyes and thoughts are drawn overseas to obscure places?

It is time turn inward, to heal our wounds here in the States.  Then we will be healthy enough to engage responsibly with the rest of the world.