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New Possible Solution To West Texas Water Crisis
New Possible Solution To West Texas Water Crisis 01/16/13
Felicia Bolton
fbolton@cbs7.com
CBS 7 News Reporter
January 16, 2013
MONAHANS, TX – Despite recent rainfall, West Texas is still fighting a bitter and brutal drought. Now several cities are looking at what's underneath Ward County as a solution to the water crisis.
“Because of the drought conditions we've had over the past year and a half, it's very crucial out here,” said Kermit Director of Public Work John Shepard.
Representatives from the Texas Water Development Board and the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District gave details into the Captain Reef Complex Aquifer, a possible new water source in the Basin.
“It's an aquifer that we’re very much interested in getting brackets of water out and providing future water devices for Odessa,” said Odessa City Manager Richard Morton.
The aquifer is a hook shaped source of water about 2- 5,000 feet below the surface, which branches through West Texas counties. Oil companies, in their drilling process, currently use it.
But the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation district says this could change and they are urging cities to consider using the water.
“You can sit over here and say, well I hope it [the current water supply] holds up, but what are you going to do if it doesn't. That’s where water management is important," said Paul Weatherby, General Manager of the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District.
Weatherby says the water from the aquifer in the area under Winkler, Ward and Pecos counties would need extensive cleaning and it would be a heavy cost.
The Texas Water Development Board says that changes that would allow the aquifer to be used by cities can not be made until 2015 .