DALLAS, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A heated debate in Texas over a proposal to pump water from state lands for commercial sale is spurring state officials to review a 100-year-old water policy.
The so-called rule of capture gives a landowner the right to pump an unlimited amount of ground water from an aquifer without regard to what harm it might cause his neighbor.
The new debate surfaced after revelations that Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson was negotiating a deal to lease 355,000 acres of arid state-owned land in far West Texas to Rio Nuevo Ltd. to prospect for water.
Marshall Jennings, a hydrogeologist at Texas State University at San Marcos, said the proposed pumping in four counties near El Paso could have a dramatic impact on water storage, possibly removing two to six times the rate of natural recharge from rain.
Another official concerned about the proposal is Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, although she says well-informed, groundwater conservation districts can modify the rule of capture locally. There are some areas, however, that have no districts.
