Pipelines and Desalination at the Lone Star Legislative Summit

Here's what state Rep. Mike Hamilton (from far east Orange County) says about the future of communities dependent on fossil aquifers:

State Rep. Mike Hamilton commented that since it's impossible to run pipelines across the state to the Panhandle or West Texas for water, any way to alleviate pressure in those areas is greatly needed, including possible desalination plants on the coast where those areas wouldn't have to pull water resources from other areas.

Tuffy is the chair of the House Natural Resources committee and knows a few things about the politics of water. But he's missing the bets of people like Boone Pickens that pipelines will be built, but to ship water east, not west. He's also seems to be a little lost on coastal desalination plants, that right now look prohibitively expensive and dependent on equally expensive nuclear power, and are equally far from the water-poor west as east Texas is

Indian water rights

Via Brown + Caldwell's Texas Water News, Indian tribes are starting to realize the value of the water on their reservations, granted to them in 1908 but rarely used. As they exercise their rights, they take away water used by irrigators on their borders. This USA Today story is a little oblique, but the tribes are garnering considerable payments for use of their rights, while irrigators are often asking the government to pick up the increased cost of their dependence on water.

Update: WaterWired has more interesting things to say than I do.

Another Climate Change and Water Conference

This time hosted by the Rivers System Insitute at Texas State U and called

Forecast: Climate change impacts on Texas water

Document on the Week

Via TWRI New Waves,

Research into the Characterization of Brackish Water and Disposal of Desalination Reject Water in Saline Aquifers and Depleted Oil and Gas Reservoirs

exploring the opportunities created by 2007 legislation authorizing TCEQ to permit injection well storage of desalination reject water

Water Words that Work

A good blog about rhetoric, framing, and vocab

Water Words that Work, by Eric Eckl

Mesa water is expensive, Oklahoma water isn't

From SC Gwynne in the Texas Monthly Feb 2008 issue (sub req'd):

So if Region C doesn't get its water from pipelines to East Texas, strict conservation, or reuse, where will it get its water? T. Boone Pickens thinks the answer to this question could be worth a lot of money. Never one to let an opportunity pass by, Pickens has come up with a scheme to pump water from the Ogallala Aquifer and sell it to the big suppliers in Region C. The Ogallala is pumped on a massive scale, irrigating corn, cotton, wheat, and sorghum crops in the areas around Lubbock and Amarillo and accounting for about 40 percent of all the water used in the state of Texas. Of course, it is being slowly depleted and sometime in the next century will run completely dry. But in the meantime, Pickens has been buying up groundwater rights in the area. His idea is to get one or more of the Metroplex's three big suppliers to finance the building of a pipeline for about $2 billion; once the pipes are up and running, he'll sell Region C the water in them.

This may sound like a perfect, if somewhat ecologically irresponsible, match of supply and demand, but in fact Pickens's water is extremely expensive compared with the alternatives. According to a recent engineering study, his water would cost some $2.60 per thousand gallons, more than three times what it would cost to get water from the new reservoir on lower Bois d'Arc Creek (one of the four East Texas reservoirs proposed for Region C). Pickens' scheme also costs more than piping water in from Toledo Bend. According to the main suppliers, there are only two sources of water more expensive than Pickens's--a large aquifer that stretches south and east of Dallas, called the Carrizo-Wilcox, and the Gulf of Mexico (though, due to its prohibitive cost, desalinated Gulf water is not yet in the picture).

But Pickens persists. His project relies on the near absence of state regulation of groundwater. This circumstance may be short-lived--most water experts expect more-stringent state groundwater regulation in the next 25 years--but for now groundwater from either Pickens or the Carrizo-Wilcox remains on the table for all three water suppliers.

"Boone's thing is certainly feasible," says Jim Oliver, the general manager of the Texas Municipal Water District. "Water from the Carrizo-Wilcox is also feasible. But their markup is incredible, and they want a whole lot more money than what we can build other reservoirs for. Boone is revising his model. But he is just going to have to get real."

A little further in is a interesting bit of history on the North Texas Municipal Water District attempt to buy excess water (pdf) from eastern Oklahoma, land of many rains and few people. Those discussions were terminated in 2002 (pdf).

But, the Tarrant Regional Water District has started negotiations to pump Kiamichi basin water just before it reaches the salty Red River (Flash). TRWD refers to this as 'Gulf-bound' water and thinks the project might be more acceptable because it captures water leaving Oklahoma instead of actually in Oklahoma. FAQ here (also Flash).

Document of the Week

Proceedings of "Water and the Future of Rural Texas" hosted by Texas Center for Policy Studies in March 2001.

Topics included right of capture, the common interests of greenies and rancher and farmers, water marketing, and the effects of low environmental flows on wildlife.

And Susan Combs said there should be no policy that encourages transfer of water away from its origin.

Eminent Doman and Lower Bois d'Arc Reservoir

Fannin County Commissioners passed a resolution opposing eminent domain taking without proper compensation a few days ago. I don't know if this was intended as a strong anti-reservoir message or not, but it shows the tension between residents there and the proposed 22,000 acre-area Lower Bois d'Arc Reservoir sited north of Hwy 82.

Hopefully more to come...


Update March 1: Commissioner Pat Hilliard's Pct 4 includes part of the reservoir area . Mr. Hilliard was in Austin when the resolution passed, but wouldn't have signed it because he thinks the existing system of appeals for property valuations during eminent domain proceedings works well and has the benefit of a century of refinement. Mr. Hilliard believes NTMWD is going to have their way and there's no point in racking up attorney fees to string out the property valuation process. Opposition to the eminent domain process is coming from Texas Farm Bureau as it tries to protect some of the USDA-subsidized bottomland farms in the proposed lake

Great Lakes Compact now numbers 3

The inimitable Cuyahoga County Planning Commission blog on states ratifying the compact.

Haditha

Frontline: Rules of Engagement, on the Haditha massacre, is very good.

Boone files for Panhandle Groundwater board

Boone Pickens has filed for a seat on the nine-member Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District board. He's voted in Roberts County since 2003, which makes him eligible. Boone says he'll concern himself with fairness in metering and allowed production.

His challenger is Roberts County resident Steve Hale, who himself led a group of landowners in a 2003 attempt to sell production permits for 150,000 acres without a buyer.

Here's what Boone says:
"During the past decade, I have worked diligently to make dramatic improvements in the area through a variety of conservation and wildlife initiatives, and by helping increase property values throughout the county by ensuring landowners have the right to market their stranded and surplus groundwater."

Stranded and surplus fossil water, indeed.

Lubbock preparing to set Ogallala limits

The High Plains Groundwater Conservation District 1 held its first meeting on setting draw limits for the Ogallala, and on setting rules to enforce those limits. This was the first public meeting on the issue. Farmers, who represent 90 percent of the draw on the Ogallala, seem resigned to moving to dryland farming, but also hold a grudge against urban folks who use their water to do things like keep lawns green. Those laid pack daddies are starting to get tense.

To wit, this letter that artfully incorporates warning of growing Panhandle agribusiness and its water use with fears of increased illegal immigration.

Preliminary limits and rules are due to be presented to the Lege in 2009.

Earnings Conference Call Mayhem

Some dork is joining the earnings calls of big public companies, like Coca-Cola and Rubbermaid, and asking stupid questions cloaked in analyst-speak:

"Can you provide some more color as to what you are doing for your supply chain initiatives to reduce manufacturing costs per hectoliter, as you originally promised $150 million in synergy or savings to decrease working capital?"

The legitimate analysts claim the guy's questions are off the mark because they sound more like 'consultant-speak.' I didn't know there's a difference.

Like everyone who's had to suffer through more than about two of these calls for the sake of research, I thought it was funny to do the same thing, but I never went through the trouble of actually calling. That's like pointing and laughing at an AA meeting. Going foward, this won't happen again.

Nutrient trading

Farmers and other watershed polluters are looking at markets in water nutrients to protect the health of their waterways.

Rainwater can put you off the grid

A couple in San Marcos have, among other things, installed a 6,000 gallon rainwater catchment that should meet their household needs except during the most severe droughts. They've done many other, small improvements that cumulatively have earned them a five-star green rating from Austin Energy

Water Resources GIS mega-conflab tonite

The American Water Resources Association is holding their spring GIS fling in San Mateo in March