Aquifers’ Water Levels Continue Decline
Manger Rick Harston presented the Glasscock Groundwater Conservation District's directors graphs showing the district’s aquifers’ water levels as measured in 2003. Both the Glasscock County Edwards-Trinity and the Reagan County Edwards-Trinity are down six inches since 2002 measurements, while the Glasscock County Ogallala is down more than one foot. He said the Ogallala is considered non-rechargeable, and any rise in the graph shows the result of former cropland that has been put into a government conservation program such as CRP, and is not being irrigated. Graphs showing water levels in the three aquifers from 1983 – 2003 are available in the water district office.
Harston gave board members copies of an article written by Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke, “Texas Water and the Rule of Capture,” which appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Jan. 19. Harston said he considers it one of the best things he’s read concerning control of the state’s groundwater. Dierschke advocates expanding local groundwater districts to cover all of the state, and letting them manage groundwater, rather than creating a state bureaucracy to try to solve water problems. The opinion is available at http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/7745569.htm, or copies are available at the GGCD office.
According to Harston, the Rule of Capture (which essentially says that groundwater is controlled by the land owner) is effectively already dead where there are groundwater districts. He said 55 percent of Texas land is now covered by such districts, and they cover 89 percent of the state’s major aquifers. He said the groundwater districts’ overall position is that districts should be created to cover the other 11 percent of the aquifers, rather than trying to write new state regulations. He said, “There’s no way the state can manage as many aquifers as we have in Texas.” Currently, surface water, but not groundwater, is managed by the state. Harston said areas like El Paso, with no groundwater districts, and no permitting for new wells, “…may hang us all.”