Someone cornering market on water now? Israel is having water line bult fromTurkey to their state? With their weather modification program why this need? Here is comes - now the water we drink is to become very expensive? Weather program is taking its toll - if lights go out in California, no water can be pumped. Saba Welcome, saba22 Sign Up for Newsletters | Log Out Go to Advanced Search April 16, 2001 For Texas Now, Water and Not Oil Is Liquid Gold By JIM YARDLEY David Bowser for The New York Times T. Boone Pickens, above, is proposing to pump water from underneath his Mesa Vista Ranch in Miami, Tex., to the highest bidder. In New Mexico, Debate Over Arsenic Strikes Home (April 14, 2001) Florida, Low on Drinking Water, Asks E.P.A. to Waive Safety Rule (April 13, 2001) Private Sector May Sell Water to Southern California Agency (Dec. 26, 2000) Plan to Restore River Causes California Furor (Dec. 20, 2000) Join a Discussion on The Environment David Bowser for The New York Times State Senator J. E. Brown favors encouraging private companies to sell water. MIAMI, Tex. — The dirt road winds through the gray hills of T. Boone Pickens's sprawling Mesa Vista Ranch when an unlikely swath of green grass appears like an emerald in a sandbox. It is a lushly irrigated two-hole golf course, a playpen for a wealthy man, and a reminder that beneath this bleak, isolated terrain lies one of the prime untapped reserves of water in Texas. And Mr. Pickens, the former oilman and corporate raider whose takeover bids once struck terror in boardrooms, has more in mind for the Mesa Vista than golf. At a time when nearly every major city in Texas is desperate for more water to meet runaway population growth, Mr. Pickens is proposing to pump tens of billions of gallons — to the highest bidder. "Water is the lifeblood of West Texas," said Mr. Pickens, 72, who is courting Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso as potential customers and estimates that a deal could reap $1 billion. "They've got to get it somewhere." For decades the gold beneath the ground in Texas was oil. But if oil built modern Texas, water is now needed to sustain it. Water has become so valuable that a complicated scramble is under way for the rights to underground aquifers, reminiscent of the days when "land men," among them a young George W. Bush, solicited rural landowners to drill for oil. There are even "water ranches" popping up around the state. The unanswered question is whether all this activity will skew who gets water and who does not in the future, or influence how much it will cost. In many parts of the country, water is considered a life-sustaining public resource. So there are already public policy concerns about whether pumping water for profit could threaten supply in some areas. Rural officials fear that large cities could simply outbid them in a profit-driven market. And Texas law offers few restrictions; groundwater is considered private property, and any landowner can pump the water out even if it leaves neighbors high and dry. "You're going to devastate a large part of the state of Texas," said Tom Beard, a rancher who said he feared that arid West Texas could be pumped dry by water ranches owned by distant cities. "I'm not sure we can afford to treat water like cotton or cattle. And certainly not like oil. The approach to oil was to pump it up, use it up and do something else. We can't do that with water." Throughout the country, drought and population growth have placed a premium on water. Such demand is amplified in Texas after four droughts in five years. The state's population is 20.8 million, second only to California's, and demographers predict that it will double in 50 years. Already, El Paso must find new sources of water or it could run out in 20 years. The Rio Grande, a primary water source for counties along the Mexican border, is so dry that this month it failed for the first time in 50 years to reach the Gulf of Mexico, stopping 50 feet short. Until now, Texas has largely avoided the contentious political fights over water familiar to Western states like Arizona. But the Texas Legislature is considering a sweeping piece of legislation known as Senate Bill 2 that could determine how water is regulated and what is done to meet demand in the state for the next half-century. Regional water planning groups have proposed $17 billion in public works projects, conservation efforts and irrigation improvements. Lawmakers say it could cost at least $80 billion to upgrade the state's aging municipal water systems. The political debate is complicated. Environmentalists want more conservation and tougher regulation, as opposed to new dams and aggressive pumping of groundwater. There are the competing demands of agriculture and urban areas. There are also differing needs and climates in the state's various regions, some of which depend on reservoirs and other surface sources while others depend on underground aquifers. The divide is starkly rural versus urban, particularly over who should have priority in times of drought when a water source is shared. A major sticking point in planning is the difficulty in passing taxes to pay for any major water projects. Legislators have already stripped Senate Bill 2 of a tax increase on water and sewer bills that would have raised several hundred million dollars a year. This lack of political will is one reason some lawmakers say water marketing — essentially allowing private companies to sell and move water like electricity — is the best solution. "We can't pay for all of it — the state," said State Senator J. E. Brown, the influential Republican who is sponsoring the water legislation and who favors encouraging private efforts. "Either you've got to let the price of water go up, or we're going to have to collect fees." State Senator David E. Bernsen, a Democrat who represents Beaumont, agreed that a fund-raising mechanism was needed for future water projects. But he warned of the potential consequences of privatization in a state where nearly 55 percent of the population depends on groundwater for drinking. "It's kind of like the golden rule: those with the gold make the rules," Mr. Bernsen said. "If individuals like T. Boone Pickens are going to control groundwater, and water is already more valuable than oil, then they will set the economic policy for where Texas is going to grow. And that is a dangerous situation." Here in Miami (pronounced my- AM-uh), which is tucked in a remote stretch of the Texas Panhandle, the equivalent of a water rush has been under way for more than year, though no major pumping has begun. Roberts County, which includes Miami, has fewer than 1,000 people and is hardly affluent. An acre of land costs only $250 because the rugged terrain makes farming difficult at best. But it does sit atop a mostly untouched section of the immense Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches as far north as South Dakota. On a recent Saturday afternoon, about 60 ranchers in dusty jeans gathered inside the Roberts County Courthouse as Mr. Pickens explained the latest developments in his deal. One rancher had already signed a contract to sell water to Amarillo. Another group was looking for a customer to lease water rights on 190,000 acres. The regional Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, which provides water for much of the Panhandle, will next month become the first to actually start pumping in Roberts County. Continued 1 | 2 | Next>> Home | Back to National | Search | HelpBack to Top Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company | Privacy Information
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