re: #31 austin_blue

Oh, look at you! You’re a READER!

By the way, that comment I made in the last thread is absolutely true. The Railroad Commission made sure that any groundwater used in oil and gas production wasn’t regulated under the Texas Water Code. They can suck as much water out of the ground as they need and it can’t be regulated by any Groundwater Conservation District in the State. Any town in the Permian Basin is screwed, blued, and tattooed. Expect water refugees to be moving to Weatherford and Austin in the near future because their wells will be as dry as a bone in the next five years.

Lubbock’s water situation is already perilous, private wells are running dry in and around town and little is being done about it. The primary surface source, Lake Alan Henry, has only been online 5 years and is already drying up. It consistently fails to provide the required volume and city planning pays no heed to the possibility of climate change making the situation worse. This forces continued use of groundwater, with predicted depletion rates that take no account of frakking use and that also use replenishment estimates that ignore climate change. They claim they are good for 40 years. I think it’s more like 10 and may be even less with a really severe drought event.