Here is a link to an interview posted by a public library. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/fordco/dustbowl/irenethompson.html The woman being interviewed is discussing her childhood during the dustbowl years. I was really surprised by everything that she said was occurring during this time frame. It’s hard to think that some houses at this time might have still been little shacks on the prairie while other homes were relatively modern. The interviewee talks about how her parents would make popcorn and home-made fudge as a way to entertain the smaller children during dust storms, as it was such a scary situation for them. She also discusses how her family and the families around her would purchase sacks of flour, picking out the prettiest material so that it could later be cut and sewn into a dress. I guess, for me at least, it was a shock to think about cocoa powder or chocolate being available to make fudge, but still having only a couple of dresses to wear, and making the new ones from flour sacks! Overall, the interview is actually rather lengthy. I do think it would be of interest to read it in its entirety if and when you have a moment. However, if you’re short on time you might just try to search for key words as the conversation really does cover nearly every topic mentioned in class about the dustbowl and plenty more.

Her discussions about conservation and farming practices also caught my attention. It seemed that for those that lived through those times, it’s a fairly obvious fact that these actions helped compound the situation. As I was thinking about that, I began to think about a comment made in class today about the diminishing levels within the water tables. While drought and water supply has been a concern for a great many years, the following link, http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/fordco/dustbowl/irenethompson.html will take you to the materials for an insurance meeting held in Salina in 2007. I was blown away thinking that farming and ranching were still such a hot topic in current agricultural events and discussion. Perhaps this can serve as some form of re-assurance that there is something that we can do to minimize our affect on the land as well as minimizing the impact endured by natural cycles of rain and drought. These notes, however, were a bit shocking.

The topics seemed so similar to what we were discussing in class these last few days about the dust storms that happened 80 years ago. I know that in terms of the life of the planet, that’s hardly any time at all. And, it would be rather unreasonable to expect such a big problem to be fixed in such a short amount of time. For us right here today, however, it seems discouraging to know we’re still trying to make the same changes we were trying to make that long ago. As one girl mentioned in class, many of us are directly associated with the land itself. Just as we have spilled our sweat and blood on those grounds, it seems to also run through our veins. The thought of something so dear to me suffering from something so preventable breaks my heart.

So what’s being done to prevent a recurrence of these tragic events? Well, the first thing that came to my mind (especially with the water table comment still so fresh within it) was the proposal of creating injection wells near the Wichita area to inject river water into the Equus Beds Aquifer. I’ve provided the link to the project website, so that you may peruse it at your leisure should you so desire. http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/studies/equus/ Even these efforts though, have been met with disapproval and suspicion. A variety of wells have been installed in this area. Water is being collected from the Arkansas Rivers and maneuvered into the recharge wells. After some purification, the water is being directly injected into the Equus beds. There is no way to know, however, exactly how pure the water is.

For citizens within the city limits this may be no big deal. Their water is run through the city’s purification system before reaching their faucets anyway. However, for many rural residents who obtain their water supply directly from private wells with no additional purification, this action poses potential risks to their personal health as well as the health of their crops and livestock. So, the question becomes, is any action better than none? Or have we been too quick to forget that it was our intentional manipulation of nature that led to these predicaments to begin with? While we may be solving a problem that we ourselves created, who’s to say that meddling with rivers and natural water reserves doesn’t pose many unseen risks? It was a mistake to assume that we could do whatever we so chose to the land with no negative consequences. While it is a good and right thing to want to make up for our past mistakes, our mission now needs to be ensuring that our solutions are not more problems in disguise.