By Forrest Laws
Delta Farm Press
The Mississippi Alluvial Plain runs from southeast Missouri through Arkansas, west Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. For decades the shallow aquifer beneath the MAP has provided irrigation water for millions of acres of corn, cotton, rice and soybeans.
But declining water levels and increasing energy costs are leading scientists, such as Dr. J.R. Rigby, a team lead and research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, to take a closer look at just how plentiful and cheap water from the aquifer may be in the future.