West Texans Sizzle Over Plan to Sell Their Water

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/national/11WATE.html?th

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

Published: December 11, 2003

<snip>

ALPINE, Tex. — Angry West Texans and some state officials are demanding a halt to a deal that allows a group of politically well-connected Midland oilmen to tap the desert and sell billions of gallons of water from the state's public reserves.

The venture was advancing without announcement or competitive bidding by the powerful Texas General Land Office, which controls 20 million acres of public lands and the liquids and minerals beneath them.

<snip>
Though big oil entrepreneurs, including T. Boone Pickens, have bought water-mining rights from public conservation districts and private land owners, the state has never opened its water to commercial marketing. But growing demand requires such sales, Mr. Patterson said. He said he would also consider sales of water under prisons, parks and other state property, just as the land office now leases rights to oil, gas, minerals and wind power.

<snip>
Then, in May, as the legislative session wound down, the Texas House and Senate passed a bill that would allow the Rio Grande watermaster to put into the river "privately owned water" for delivery to clients and directed the state's Commission on Environmental Quality "to expedite any application for a permit" to carry out the act.

Mr. Dewhurst said he remembered Rio Nuevo's pressing for such a bill, but said he did not focus on it during the session. Mr. Craddick's spokesman said the speaker had nothing to do with the bill.

=MORE-
*********************************************************************

Be afraid people, be very afraid. We have been fighting wars since the beginning of time over water. If you control the water, you control everything. And isn't it strange, it's big oilmen from Midland Texas who have got the control. Think there's anything funny going on here?

If he has his way, the oilmen will own and destroy everything in this country. Go to the courts and raise holy hell! NO ONE has the right to take water from people!

It's all based on efficiency, not need. If Texas is one of those winner-takes-all property states, one person can claim an entire watering hole. The reasoning, they claim, is that there's not enough for everyone, so they just give it to the strongest, the boldest and the most connected.

Well, I'm elaborating a little.

... are demanding a halt to a deal that allows a group of politically well-connected Midland oilmen to tap the desert and sell billions of gallons of water from the state's public reserves.

Am I missing something here???

Sorry to say this, but we Texans are getting what we deserve in the short run. West Teaxans voted for repubs darn well KNOWING that repubs wanted to sell water to the highest bidder. What are they complaining about now- that they are actually doing it?!!


This will also be an issue in my area (SE Texas) in the near future. San Antonio, Houston and even El Paso have wanted our water for years. Now that they have a Lege and Land Commissioner who are friendly with their interests, we'll probably lose out too. But we at least vote Dem, so we can continue to complain!

And the same people (oligarchies) who own most of the land in the country, own most of the oil and will be shown to own most of the water.
Western states have been in this fix for years (Nevada, MO, WY etc.)
It is the driving force behind the Israeli "security wall" which snakes around to encapule Palestinian water wells and other water resources.
We are so easily duped by the media which always has us looking in the direction of where the smoke is blown rather than where the fire originates.

it become scarce. Instead, it will be grounds for civil war and the end of a capitalist society. I can only imagine the number of Robin Hoods that will spring up and be worshipped for keeping the essence of life open to everybody.

of people who put Clownboy in the Governor's Mansion, and then the WH. If they get thirsty, I'll be happy to spit on them for their stupidity.

Any West Texas DU-ers are welcome to come over to my place and refresh yourself with cool drinks on me. Get the word out about this.

My favorite part of the article:

By Texas law, unless a water district has been formed, landowners control the water beneath their property and can draw it out even if that depletes a neighbor's supply. This is known as the rule of capture, or "the biggest pump wins."

No wonder that state is so whacked. They can't decide whether they like Evolution or not.

on this one. West Texas water is so horribly bad ya can't drink it, ya need an R.O. system or bottled water from stores.

West Texas water is loaded with Perchlorate contamination. Google the word "Perchlorate"

We have it in Arizona, too.

And a huge development consortium -- of whom Jerry Colangelo, owner of the Phoenix Suns, AZ Diamondbacks, etc., is major partner -- has within the past year advanced plans to develop a HUMONGOUS tract of land sitting on top of one of the largest untapped aquifers in the state, if not the entire country. They want to build a "community" of some half-million residents in the middle of the desert, with twenty-plus golf courses all watered from this aquifer.

They did no hydrology studies to determine the effects of pumping millions of gallons of water daily from this aquifer, but after a local citizens group (funded by Toyota, whose proving ground lies on top of the aquifer and could be impacted by significant depletion) raised a ruckus about it, Colangelo personally promised to fund such a study prior to any actual development.

As this area of the country and of Arizona continues to mushroom with housing developments -- and golf courses -- that suck the water out of the ground, I expect to see stories about vast sinkholes gobbling up houses, dairy farms, even mountains??????

Please pray that such a sinkhole doesn't open beneath the house of


Tansy Gold

or is it out by Estrella Mountains? My family lives west of Phoenix and that area is being developed like crazy.

Douglas Ranch is only in the proposal stages. It's west and north of the White Tanks, almost by Wickenburg but has actually been annexed by the small (population) town of Buckeye.

I don't know much about Verrado's water supply, but it is an entirely separate mega-development.

Tansy Gold, who wakes up every morning to sound of dozers and scrapers as the desert is DEMOLISHED and little boxes made of ticky tacky are built on it.

They're running out of ideas. Although I hope something like that never happens.

in Andrews may completely destroy the value of the water when it contaminates it! Now that's a laugh! And my grandparents came to West Texas in 1928, and I can assure you that I have NEVER voted for a Repub of any stripe - my grandad was an organizer for the IWW in the 30s in the oil fields - got put in a hospital for four years for his trouble.

So Tom Fucking Craddick and his Asshole Midland Friends are free to take a flying leap straight up somebody's ass! (Not mine, I'm particular about what gets near my ass!)

Plunderers own our asses, run this country and laugh all the way to the bank.

Go ahead dummies, you voted for the person who will take bread out of your mouth and give it to some filthy rich corporate greed pig. Vote for him again you dummies.

That rugged individualism stuff's just great; it's so much easier for a big corporation to crush a whole bunch of people when they won't band together. Yep, conservatism in action. Don't care if it's a dry-gulcher and I can't afford to shower, long's I ain't no commie.

way of price gouging Americans open. :puke: