A ruling in a recent court case between Kansas and Nebraska required farmers in southern N...

A ruling in a recent court case between Kansas and Nebraska required farmers in southern Nebraska to pump less water from wells in order to maintain water levels in the Republican River as it flowed south to Kansas (see map). The two states have long had an agreement that prevents Nebraska from drawing too much water from the river because Kansas farmers need to use the river water for irrigation. Nebraska authorities claimed that they were not taking water from the river but from underground aquifers and that this practice is not prohibited by the agreement. Explain why the court ruled that groundwater should be considered part of the surface water system. Draw a sketch to show how the consumption of groundwater would have changed water levels in the river.