Don’t mess with Texas…and don’t mess with the water!
Texas billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is one step closer to depleting the Ogallala aquifer. For five years his company, Mesa Water, has been trying to siphon water from the aquifer - located in the Panhandle – to growing cities such as El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth. Last week Pickens was able to secure a November 6th election for the creation of a fresh water supply district in Roberts County, which would give Pickens free reign over all water use and distribution. Why will he get all the power? It turns out that there are only five people eligible to vote – and all either work for Pickens, support him and live within the proposed district’s boundaries.
Ogallala is already severely depleted, and Pickens plans to pump and sell as much as 200,000 acre-feet/year (AFY). Just to give you an idea of how devastating this would be, the aquifer has a minimal recharge rate of less than one AFY. West Texas farmers rely heavily on the aquifer for water, and if Pickens acquires water rights to 50 more acres to the already 150 acres he owns, he could pump as much as 65 billion gallons of water a year.
A fresh water supply district would also allow Pickens to charge cities exorbitant prices for water – an estimated $1,400 per acre-foot for El Paso, $800 for Dallas, and more than $1,000 for San Antonio. No doubt these prices will trickle down to the citizens of these cities.
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