FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQs 1. Who is involved in this project? Mesa Water, led by Boone Pickens, and a group of over 100 Panhandle landowners have worked together since 1999 to market and sell their Panhandle groundwater to other regions in Texas. 2. How much water does Mesa want to sell? Mesa Water has permits to produce and transport approximately 200,000 acre feet, or 65,170,200,000 gallons per year and will acquire an additional 120,000 acre feet or 39,120,000,000 gallons per year. Right now, Mesa Water is in talks to sell water to North Central Texas or San Antonio. 3. How would you get the water there? Mesa Water could be delivered to North Central Texas or San Antonio via pipeline. 4. Are there any rules in place to prevent Mesa from exporting all of the water from the aquifer? Yes, and Mesa Water fully supports conserving our water source. Under the rules set by the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, at least 50% of the Ogallala Aquifer’s 1998 volume must remain in place in 2048. As it stands today, if all parties were to pump the maximum amount of water from the four-county area, it would take 125 years just to hit the 50% drawdown mark. 5. But what about the counties to the west and south of this four-county area whose economies rely on water for irrigation? The portions of the Panhandle that use water for irrigation would be unaffected by the Mesa Water project. The hydro-geological structure of the Ogallala Aquifer beneath the four-county area is in the form of saturated gravel, sand, silt, and clay. Because of this, drawdown from the Mesa Water project will be limited to the vicinity of the production wells – primarily only to those people who want to sell their groundwater and can’t use it for agriculture. 6. How much is this project going to cost? Pipeline construction costs are estimated to be about $1.5 million per mile, with the total costs of developing the well fields and building the pipeline estimated to be around $1.5 billion, making Mesa Water available to customers at a competitive cost within 5 years of starting construction. 7. Shouldn’t water from the Mesa Group stay in the Panhandle so that it will be available to meet future needs, particularly for agriculture? Most of the people who want to sell their water are longtime residents and ranchers in the four-county area who want to preserve their lifestyles for future generations. Mesa Water will do nothing to jeopardize that lifestyle because the aquifer’s supply is beyond any local municipal, domestic, and livestock demands. Without any doubt, ample water is assured indefinitely for these uses. Due to the topography of the Mesa Water land of mostly rolling hills, canyons and mesas, farming is not a viable option. Only about 4% or 100,000 acres of the northeast Texas Panhandle is suitable and used for farming out of 2.5 million acres in the four counties of Hemphill, Lipscomb, Ochiltree and Roberts. 8. Even if Mesa’s water isn’t needed for agriculture, wouldn’t it still be a good idea to keep it available for other economic growth in the region in coming years? There is far more water than is needed to supply any realistic projected demand. Because of this, the Mesa water is “surplus.” 9. Why does Mesa want to sell its water far from the Panhandle? Growth projections for North Central Texas and San Antonio demonstrate a very real need for water before the end of the current decade. The Panhandle does not have growth projections to consume the water. As part of Texas Senate Bill One passed in 1997, transferring water from one region of the state to another is authorized and recognized as an appropriate strategy for ensuring that all Texans have an adequate supply of water. 10. Wouldn’t it be more practical for these big population areas to build more lakes and reservoirs to supply their needs like they have done in the past? The key to secure, drought-proof and long-term water planning is diversity, so regional plans should include as many different options for securing water as possible – from building reservoirs and capturing and purifying run-off to buying water from other regions, like the Panhandle, and piping it to where it is needed. 11. How much water can the Mesa Water project supply and how much would it cost? The plan calls for construction of a pipeline capable of delivering approximately 320,000 acre-feet per year, at an estimated construction cost of about $1.5 billion over a period of about five years. Investment bankers have indicated to Mesa Water that once a major customer is under contract, financing can begin; existing engineering studies prove that a pipeline is technically practical, and economists have provided assurance that the water can be delivered at competitive prices. 12. Shouldn’t a project of this magnitude be undertaken and operated by the state? The water rights and groundwater would be transferred to a public entity as part of the project. As local and state governments throughout the country seek to meet future water needs, more of them are turning to public/private alliances like Mesa Water. 13. Has anything of this size or magnitude been done before? Yes, in the United States and elsewhere in the world. In California, water has been transported even further distances for decades. Right here in Texas, the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority has been transporting water 323 miles in a reinforced concrete pipeline that has been in operation since 1968. |