Texas Water Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing water use throughout the state, will convey its annual Blue Legacy Award for manufacturing companies to Cargill's Friona, Texas, beef processing facility at a state capitol ceremony in Austin on March 26. Cargill's Friona plant is the only manufacturing facility receiving a 2015 award for water conservation at the "Texas Water Day at the Capitol" event. The company was nominated for the award by the High Plains Water District based in Lubbock.
Friona is located in the Texas Panhandle, and sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest underground bodies of water on the planet. This aquifer covers 174,000 square miles in part of eight states throughout the Great Plains, including portions of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. It provides water for nearly 30 percent of irrigated land in the United States. In Texas, the Ogallala Aquifer supplies water to 36,000 square miles spread across 48 counties.