The October 2008 issue of U.S. Water News reported that T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Water, Inc., has suspended plans to build a water pipeline to ship ground water, pumped from the Ogallala aquifer beneath Pickens' Roberts County ranch, to Texas cities.
Mesa has been unsuccessful in locating a buyer for the water although talks are underway with prospective buyers.
Pickens will continue his efforts to obtain rights-of-way to build a 170-mile transmission line to distribute energy from his proposed wind farm, which is slated to generate 4000 megawatts.
The paper also reported that Pickens has spent $58M in TV ads featuring Pickens himself touting his plan to wean the USA from foreign oil.
I've actually heard Pickens mentioned as a dark horse for Secretary of Energy. Sure, he's out to make money, but if he can 'think outside the box' and help the USA get on the right track, who cares? Not I. Where have the previous Secretaries of Energy gotten us?
It's appropriate that I am posting this from Pickens' home state Oklahoma, although I am not at his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, but at the University of Oklahoma.
I heard from my OU colleagues that Dallas wants to buy water from Oklahoma and is planning a pipeline to the Texas-Oklahoma border, pending successful negotiations with Oklahoma. It's funny that Dallas doesn't want to buy water from Pickens. His price must be quite high.
“I have always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.” -- T. Boone Pickens
Mesa sent a letter out to landowners announcing they were suspending the project in September. The problem was the US Department of Justice did not pre-certify the new law that changed the rules for creating fresh water supply districts.
Texas and Oklahoma have signed the water deal and Ft. Worth and north Texas are planning the pipeline.
If TBP had succeeded in getting his pipeline deal through, the cost would have been prohibitive. To build a 250 mile long pipeline from Roberts County to the Mineral Wells area would cost over $2 billion. Water would have cost Metroplex customers in the neighborhood of $1 per gallon.
This doesn't take into account the long-term effects of Mesa Water's sale of Ogallala Aquifer water. It would have turned the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles into a wasteland that would make the Dustbowl look like a dry spell. In this area, the recharge rate of the Ogallala averages .3 inches per year. You pump out an additional 250,000 acre feet per year, and pretty soon, you run out of water. Imagine what that would do to agriculture and quality of life.
Posted by: Texas Ann | Friday, 31 October 2008 at 06:51 AM