| USA
TODAY—Perrier counters that testing by Texas officials
showed that the Ozarka operation did not appear to have
a negative impact on the well.
SOS—“Perrier
did not prove that their pumping had no negative impact.
The court ruled that under current Texas water laws, there
was nothing they could do about the impact on neighboring
wells.”
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Texas
Environment Scores a Big Win as Bottled Water Sales Fall
Texas—The campaign against bottled water companies is paying off. Years of work by pressure groups and a growing awareness by the public has help expose the bottled water industry's true colors as sales this year show. The Dallas Morning News reported: Bottled water sales are expected to slow to a trickle this year, and producers are blaming everything from the parched economy to the kitchen sink. There's a free substitute called tap water Nestle is hurting. It never feels good to hear about anyone losing their jobs, but after all Nestle has done to rural communities, it seems the company is getting a little pay back.
Pickens Eyes Pipelines in Drought-Ridden U.S.
Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas.A drought has drained water from Texas and much of the rest of the United States. That could make water an increasingly profitable commodity for those who hold the rights. According to his Web site, Pickens owns rights to more water than anyone else. "In general, there's a lot of it, it's just not in the right place," says Robert Stillwell, legal counsel for Mesa Water (and board member of the water supply district), which continues to acquire water rights in rural Texas. He dismisses questions about whether the water would be cost-competitive. For cities looking at their future water needs, he says, "cost becomes irrelevant." As far as Mesa's pipeline snaking across the Texas heartland, Stillwell insists that "it's going to happen, it's just a matter of when." [Editor: Pickens has also been seen expressing an interest in the water of the Great Lakes region.]
West
Texans Sizzle Over a Plan to Sell Their Water
Angry West Texans and some state officials are demanding a halt
to a deal that allows a group of politically well-connected Midland
oilmen to tap the desert and sell billions of gallons of water
from the state's public reserves. The oil and gas businessmen
who formed Rio Nuevo bring together Texans like T. Boone Pickens
and others who are being called water speculators.
T.
Boone Pickens in Texas
The notorious oilman has acquired land overlying the Ogallala
aquifer and wants to pump and sell as much as 200,000 acre-feet
of groundwater annually to one of Texas’ metropolitan centers.
Sleepless
in Midland
The New York Times has published an article about the proposal
by Rio Nuevo, Ltd., to lease water rights under far west Texas
land owned by the state of Texas. The Times mostly rehashes much
of what we already knew, but there is some background about how
it all came about, and the parts involving Texas House Speaker
Tom Craddick make for interesting reading:
Rule
of capture to be reviewed by lawmakers
As concerns grow about the management of Texas water resources,
state officials will revisit the so-called “rule of capture,”
the law which has governed the use of groundwater in Texas for
almost a century.
Plan
would sell Texans back their own water
Imagine for a moment: water-starved El Paso paying a private company
for water belonging to El Pasoans and other Texans. It could happen
under a proposal being developed in closed meetings between a
Midland-based consortium and state officials at the General Land
Office and School Land Board.
Texas:
T. Boone Pickens
The notorious oilman has acquired land overlying the Ogallala
aquifer and wants to pump and sell as much as 200,000 acre-feet
of groundwater annually to one of Texas’ metropolitan centers.
Water
rights to be auctioned on eBay
An online auction to benefit an effort to build a new library,
archives and museum in Uvalde will include the right to pump 326,000
gallons of water a year from the Edwards Aquifer.
 When
Perrier Came To Texas, The Water Left
When God created Texas, he planted the factories and five-lane
highways in Dallas, but he smiled on rural east Texas. He gave
it sweet gum and dogwood trees, sand as fine as sugar, and streams
that wind around hills.
Perrier
to build third bottling plant in the US
Perrier Group of America has recently begun construction on a
new bottled water plant in Hawkins, Texas.
The
biggest pump wins
Texas
Supreme Court to decide landowners protected from Aquifer drainage
Opponents
of Perrier turn eyes to Texas
November 24, 1998 - St. Pete Times
Texas
Supreme Court to hear Rohr Springs water rights case
August 29, 1998
High
court agrees to hear Ozarka case
August 26th, 1998
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