The Ogalla is not an underground lake nor an underground river as envisioned by many, but a gigantic sponge holding enough water to fill Lake Huron. The aquifer ranges in thickness from less than a foot to 1,300 feet and averages about 200 feet in most areas. The greatest volume of water in the Ogallala underlies the state of Nebraska where the aquifer actually bubbles to the surface in places. Presently, most of the water pumped from the Ogallala is used to irrigate crops, much of which is used to feed livestock. Two major kinds would be organic and inorganic.
Organic contaminants have chains of carbon atoms as their basic building blocks.
These carbon chains can be straight, branched, in rings or some combination of the above. The carbon chains may have additional atoms or groups of atoms such as sulfur or chloride attached at specific points. Pesticides, herbicides, solvents, petroleum products, plastics many household and industrial compounds are all examples of organic compounds. In organic compounds are far fewer in number compared to organic compounds. They are still important sources of contamination, as shown by the nitrate problem in Nebraska groundwater supplies.