No doubt this has been discussed and examined at length up there in the Panhandle, but I thought you might be interested in this account in a Houston newspaper ...

LINK - chronicle

quote:

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MIAMI, Texas — Oilman Boone Pickens has been trying for seven years to move billions of gallons of water from underneath the northeastern Panhandle to urban Texas. On Tuesday, Alton and Lu Boone should put him one step closer to pulling it off.

Alton Boone manages Pickens' ranch in the region, and Lu is his wife. They're the only voters registered to approve Roberts County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1 and a $101 million bond issue in what may be the state's most unique election next week.

The Boones almost assuredly will approve everything, although they have declined to talk publicly about it.

The plan by Pickens' company, Mesa Water, is simple: Purchase 400,000 acres in water rights, get a friendly supply district installed on a remote eight-acre plot in Roberts County that Pickens deeded to the Boones and three other employees, find a buyer for more than 65 billion gallons of water per year and build a pipeline to that customer.

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three cheers for the Rule of Capture ...

quote:

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"This is the situation our legislative leaders put us in," County Judge Vernon Cook said at his Aggie-adorned desk inside the courthouse in Miami (pronounced my-AM-uh), a picturesque ranching town set on the rolling range of the northeastern Panhandle.

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The only good thing is that the land is ranch land that would never be farmed, and the population of Roberts County will probably never be much more than it is today, so there is lots of water to go around.

One could certainly make an argument that the millions of folks in Dallas need water more than a few cows near Miami (Texas).

On a related note, what happened to the photos of Picken's house? It was in a topic called "Little house on the prairie" and I can't seem to find it again.

The problem lies in the fact that even though Roberts County may not need the water, heavy pumping in that area will lower the water tables in areas that do need the water. (Look at the effect of the Lubbock Water Field) just east of Muleshoe. That water field has lowered the water table of surrounding areas, not just the sandhills area it is pumped from.

Canyon - this will ruin irrigation as we know it in the Texas Panhandle. The water table is beginning to thin on the outside realm of the ogalala near clovis,nm, west of dalhart and all over the south plains. There is more water in the ocean than in the ogallala and if you pump out the ONLY water source for the panhandle then what have you got left when you don't have the water for the public to drink. This is a BAD move. Thankfully he's made everyone so mad up here he'll never get a right of way for his pipeline.

There's also the problem that if global warming continues (it doesn't matter whether it is caused by man or by nature), it is very likely to get much drier around here.

Take away the water and there won't be much left.

In places around here, it's so dry that the bindweed is reportedly dying.

Doctor51-

Nope, can't agree with you. You seem to think of the Ogalalla as one big lake. It is not. It is a series of sand boxes filled with water, and they aren't necessarily interconnected.

If they were, it would have all drained out into the Rolling Plains through spring a few thousand years ago.

The pumping drawdown won't extend much past his property line.

My problem is, if you pump out OUR water source to someone else down state we run out of water. Why not keep our water at home. Make the big cities who can afford paying for desalinated water pay for it. Our population in the panhandle isn't big enought to pay for water to be pumped back in from an outside source.

I'll admit I'm pretty conflicted about it. I am not happy that a single landowner can take such a huge chunk of water.

But if it were mine, I'd want to be able to sell it, too.

It's pretty much a mineral right, just like oil or gas. What's the difference between mining the water and mining the oil? We modern folks really can't live without either.

And if we tell Boone he can't sell "our" water from under his land, why can't he tell us we can't sell "his" water from under our land...even if we cycle through a corn crop first?

Dallas has 1.2 million people, using about 100 gallons per day each for 102 million gallons per day. An irrigation well pumping 700 gallons per minute puts out about a million gallons per day. You can probably water about 100 acres of corn with that.

So about 100 irrigation wells in the Panhandle could supply all of Dallas. You could take 10,000 acres of corn out of production to do so. Texas produces over 2,000,000 acres of corn.

That would leave us about 24,900 irrigation wells operating of the 25,000 or so in the Panhandle.

I agree with canyon ag. The ogalla may be connected but think about it like surface water. There are deep and shallow areas of the aguifer and they are not connected. Pumping water in miami, tx will not affect lubbock's water wells. Also, T. Boone has enough money and lawyers that he can build a pipeline where he wants to. Canyon. I was through your neck of the woods on Friday. It looks like we could sure use a rain!

water rights etc are going to be a huge fight in the next few decades. We need to conserve water and not send it from the panhandle to dallas.

The problem with selling water versus selling oil.....we can ship more oil in (heck, look how much we already import) but we can't ship more water in. Can you imagine bringing in water by the semi load. I would prefer fresh water anyday compared to water that has been stored in a tank for weeks. Personally, until you have been affected by a water issue, you don't understand. Try being told you should move from your home (wells were predicted to last over 200 years but because of pumping in surrounding areas, my parents are now hoping to live another there another 15-20). Selling underground water is a bad idea. Sell surface water all you want, but selling underground water will eventually cause the Texas Panhandle to go dry....I sure hope my children and grandchildren can grow up here, don't you?

The population of Dallas and San Antonio can pay for water to be pumped in though. They receive 2 to 3 times as much rain for recharge of their aquifers, we don't. I'm a farmer and I don't have a problem with T-Boone sending water within a 100 mile radius to towns around the panhandle south plains but to send it down state is assinine. We don't have the population to offset the cost of bringing in water.

I think T Boone will have right of condemnation to build his pipeline if I am not mistaken.

Hopefully he will kick the bucket soon, as our part of the world can't afford him to stay around...

If enough people really know what they are doing, they can slow it down so much and make it so expensive, they will likely look for another route.

As I understand it, as long as negotiations are going on in good faith, they can't just step in and use eminent domain to grab a right of way. A smart landowner who can draw out negotiations for a long time can get a much better deal or even get them to change the route.

That's my understanding and I may be completely wrong.

If everyone would take lessons from Jack Freeman in Texhoma, it would drive people wanting to build pipelines and powerlines completely bonkers.

Not everyone has the money to throw around that Jack Freeman does.

I've told my folks to be sure and watch out for their water rights as they will likely be worth more than the natural gas rights they have now.

Some older men around here have clauses in their potential land sale that says they retain the water rights like mineral rights. The only way the water can be used is for irrigation or livestock purposes only any other use is prohibited.