Fort Stockton Pioneer
July 23, 2009

A recap of the issues surrounding water export

The battle over the export of Pecos County water is now officially joined.

Clayton Williams has finally submitted an application to export water from his land holdings southwest of Fort Stockton.
Williams’ Fort Stockton Holdings LP announced the filing in a release issued July 13 and Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District general manager Paul Weatherby confirmed July 14 that the application has been received.

Weatherby said Fort Stockton Holdings’ application will be forwarded to the district’s board for review.

THE PLAN

The application calls for Fort Stockton Holdings to produce and export from Pecos County about 49,000 acre-feet of water each year from about 18,000 acres of land Fort Stockton Holdings owns or leases in the Leon-Belding area.

The water would be transported to residential and industrial customers, primarily in the Odessa-Midland and San Angelo areas, via a 54-inch pipeline that could cost as much as $300 million dollars, according to Fort Stockton Holdings.

When the application will ultimately be voted upon by the board is unknown. But it’s not likely to happen for some time.

First, Williams’ plan is not just a water issue. It has become a political issue, with Williams attempting and failing to get two bills through the Texas House and Senate to establish a water supply district near Midland International Airport to facilitate the project.

In Pecos County, several local governmental entities have passed resolutions against water export.

“In all the time I’ve been talking with people around here,” Pecos County Judge Joe Shuster said in April, “I’ve found no one supporting the transporting of water out of Pecos County for money.”

Before it’s finally resolved, it could also become a legal issue.

Plus, more practically, Fort Stockton Holdings’ application is not just a single-page form. Weatherby said it was a package complete with maps, charts, graphs and supporting data.

THE WATER STUDY

Much of that information accompanying the application centers on a study, commissioned by Williams, by hydrogeologists Mike Thornhill and Darrell Peckham. The study, first presented to the MPGCD board in April 2008, focuses on the Leon-Belding area.

That study maintains there’s plenty of water for Pecos County users and for Williams to export to his potential customers. Thornhill said there’s already water leaving the area. He said that more water will actually come into the system when water in the system is pumped out.

Thornhill, in his presentation to the MPGCD board, said past pumping levels were much greater than what is currently being pumped. He said the study showed that there’s more aquifer recharge than withdrawal.

“Hydrogeology is the key,” Thornhill said. “It’s a complex system, but the answers are straightforward, and the past is the key to the future.”

Thornhill said that much of the recharge for the aquifer comes via subterranean flow from the mountain areas to the south and southwest, owing to the hydrogeology of the area. He said that the Leon-Belding area has a large contribution zone, that water wants to flow to the area due to high permeability and that drought is therefore not a primary factor in water availability.

The study said that around 80,000 acre-feet of water could be pumped without affecting withdrawals by other users.

Local officials remain unconvinced there is an abundance of water in the aquifer.

“There has not been an independent study of the groundwater in Pecos County,” Shuster said in comments to the Texas House Natural Resources Committee in April. “Until you do, you won’t have the correct answers. In other words, you got the cart before the horse.”

Weatherby said it’s unlikely there will be an independent study of the Leon-Belding area. What the MPGCD will do is study Williams’ study; Randy Williams (no relation to Clayton Williams), an MPGCD hydrologist, is expected to provide a report on the application and study at the August meeting of the MPGCD board.

THE “WASTE”

Williams led a tour of the Leon-Belding area June 22, 2008, and said that currently water is being “wasted to mankind.”

If not captured, he said, water will eventually flow to the northeastern and eastern parts of the county, toward the Pecos River.

That water, Williams said, is rendered unusable due to high salinity levels acquired from flowing through sedimentary rocks.

Williams said that the City of San Angelo was interested in purchasing water from the Girvin area. The water is at a shallow depth, he said, and there’s a lot of it.

But it’s salty. The cost of treating the water and transporting it to San Angelo makes the project financially unfeasible, Williams said.

The good water is the water that’s flowing underneath Williams’ land west and southwest of Fort Stockton. It can be pumped before it accumulates a high level of salinity.

That’s the water that municipalities further east are looking for to meet their present and future needs, he said.

“This is fascinating to me as I continue to learn more about it,” Williams said. “But we’ve got a whole bunch of water.”

OR NOT

Numerous local officials believe the very survival of Pecos County is jeopardized by Williams’ plan. They’re yet to be convinced that there is enough water for everyone.

Fort Stockton Mayor Ruben Falcon has several times cited as an example the plight of Comanche Springs. The springs, located in the southeastern part of Fort Stockton, flowed at a rate of 42 million gallons per day in 1899, according to measurements from the Texas Water Development Board.

Comanche Springs last began to flow again Dec. 24, with Weatherby estimating the flow, on average, at about 1.5 million gallons per day. The last measurement was made in February 2008, Weatherby said, and it showed a flow of about 8 million gallons per day.

Falcon is not convinced that there is a need for the water in the Odessa-Midland and San Angelo areas. But even if there is a need, he said that Pecos County doesn’t have the water to send, as evidenced by the annual drying up of Comanche Springs, and the city intends to fight to keep its water.

“This is the first shot in a battle in Texas, and it’s been fired at us,” Falcon said in April after the flurry of resolutions against exporting water from Pecos County. “I’m told that we can’t stop them, but we’re going to try.”

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