Water District Accepts Annual Reports
At its Jan. 15 meeting, the Glasscock Groundwater Conservation District’s Board of Directors (Kent McMillan absent) approved annual reports of both management plans and action plans for fiscal 2007.
According to the reports, the district performed 78 water analyses at an average cost of $26; did 25 water mineral analyses and 53 water coliform tests. Sixteen water wells were permitted and two were registered. There are 73 water wells in the water level monitoring network. The district reported seven producers used the laser plane leveling equipment during the year, and no one used the Topcon equipment.
The board elected John Phillips its vice-president, replacing Dennis Seidenberger in that position.
GGCD Secretary Tisha Burnett was given authority to negotiate rates for the district’s certificates of deposit at Big Spring Banking Center after the board discussed the options. Interest on a twelve-month CD of $103,000 is at 5.09 percent and will mature in April. A three-month $57,000 CD, which matures at the end of January, is now drawing only 3.09 percent, but Burnett has been offered 3.60 percent for 18 months with no penalty for withdrawals or deposits so long as there is a minimum of $5,000 in the CD. The district moves money into and out of the smaller CD as necessary to take care of its business.
2007 Weather Modification Efforts
GGCD Manager Rick Harston summarized comments from Arquimedes Ruiz-Columbie of the West Texas Weather Modification Association after Ruiz presented the association’s annual report recently. Ruiz said the group as been in operation for ten years, and according to his data, one year of rainfall has been added to the participating area during that time because of weather modification. He said WTWMA seeded 43 percent of all the clouds that were seeded in the state during 2007, and seeded on 41 percent of its working days.
Seeding operations for 2007 began March 26 and ended Oct. 3, with 46 operational days. Ninety-five clouds were seeded with 1263 flares during 82 flights. Fourteen reconnaissance flights were flown while making attempts to find seedable clouds on marginal days. Pilots flew 188 flight hours.
Harston said Ruiz is excited about research from a tower in Webb County where experimental work is being done to remove pollutants from clouds.
GGCD’s data from its network of rain gauges is complete for 2007 and available from the district office or online at www.angelfire.com/tx/gcuwd. With 27 stations reporting most of the year, the data shows countywide 2007 average rainfall of 24.44 inches. The wettest month was August, with an average of 5.58 inches; February and October tied for the driest months with only 0.13 inches reported.