Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 2000 Page: 7 of 12
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MARCH 24, 2000, HUDSPETH COUNTY HERALD-Dell Valley Review, PAGE 7
MILLARD - LYNCH
We Buy Texas Real Estate
The avocado has more pro-
tein than any other fruit.
Phone (210) 224-4455
Fax (210) 224-6430
Including farms, ranches, vacant land,
oil and gas interests, notes, etc.
owner or
Dalila
or trade
Cartooning has been tick-
ling people’s fancies through
the ages.
as the saying goes, but actu-
ally you will probably sink
because there is not as much
under your land or under your
house as there used to be.
Can Big City do that? Don’t
you have rights too? Under
the Rule of Capture, not
many. You have the right to
pump the water before Big
City does, but, other than
that, there is not a lot you can
do other than drill a deeper
well and get used to drinking
salty water.
Of course you could sell
them the water under your
land. But why would they buy
your water at your price when
they can own the same water
by buying your neighbor’s
ranch? If they buy the ranch,
they own the same right to
capture the same water as
you have. But they will pump
more and pump it faster than
you ever will. The Rule of the
Big Pump. . lt
Rural Texas and agriculture
have two problems. The first
is that we cannot compete
with Big City (or any other Big
Pump) and will lose our water-
-literally. The second is that
we will lose our water rights if
we force the State of Texas to
start regulating water be-
cause we insist on defending
the Rule of Capture to the
death.l do not want some-
body to take my water, and I
do not want somebody to take
my water rights. What is the
answer? The recognition that
everybody has rights and that
nobody has the right to injure
somebody by exercising his
rights. It is the idea of correla-
tive rights that we talked
about above.
In real words that real peo-
ple understand, we need to
make the other guy recognize
that I have rights, too. He can
continue to drill wells and
pump water, but he has to
reasonably believe that he is
not going to injure me when he
exercises his rights, just like
the hog Tenderer. He has to
take my rights into considera-
tion. We have to impose that
Guest Editorial
to the death. Good for you.
Don’t you feel noble?
Anyway, you say, that can’t
really happen. Really? Look
at the oil and gas industiy.
The analogy is obvious. Oil
was another occult, secret
substance, and we wound up
with exactly the kinds of
“what it’s” we were talking
about above because of
scarcities, overproduction,
and competition for the re-
source. Granted, the oil and
gas industry asked to be
regulated to control overpro-
duction and keep prices high,
and we could do the same
thing. But that has zero ap-
peal to me, and I bet it has
exactly the same appeal to
you. If we continue to dodge
the question, though, the
bureaucrats and politicians
are going to decide that water
needs regulating, just like
they did with the oil and gas
industry. It is a certainty.
Count on it. Unless we make it
unnecessary.
Before talking about how to
make the politicians decide
that water regulation is not
necessary, if the other argu-
ments are not persuasive
enough, let us look at the
Rule of Capture from the
standpoint of the pumpee
rather than the pumpor-the
guy who gets pumped rather
than the one who does the
pumping.
Historically, when we,as
landowners, defend the Rule
of Caoture, it is because we
think we are going to be the
pnes pumping the water, us-
ing the water, selling the wa-
ter. We want the right to do
that. But let’s go back to the
realization that the Rule of
Capture is really the Rule of
the Biggest Straw and the
Rule of the Big Pump. What if
the neighboring Big City
drains the entire aquifer under
your house and your ranch
because it has a bunch of
thirsty citizens? Where does
that leave you? High and dry,
From the time Leonardo da
Vinci made the first sketches
of gliders to the’ first real
airplane was a period of 400
years.
THEN: - It’s likely theft
the vexy first cartoonist
worked.Tn a cave during the
Stone Age and drew wall
pictures for his own amuse-
ment or perhaps for the
pleasure of the younsters in
the family. In 1754, Benja-
min Franklin drew one of
the first cartoons in the
American colonies. Frank-
lin’s cartoon urged the colo-
nies to unite against the
French and Indians. It
showed each colony as part
of a snake with the caption,
“Join or Die.”
Land Resources Corporation
established in 1969
105 South St. Mary’s Street, Suite 1500
San Antonio, Texas 78205-2898
available to him. If he wants
better insurance, he has the
choice of gathering more data
to justify what he wants to do.
OF course, the data might
show that he should not do
what he wants to do. But,
either way, it is his choice.
Agriculture and rural Texas
have been the defenders of
the Rule of Capture. It is up to
us to propose the solutions
that will save it. If we modify
the Rule slightly, we can keep
it. And we can keep the State
of Texas out of our business
and off of our property. Al-
though water may not be se-
cret and occult any longer,
bureaucrats still are. Surely
we do not want to substitute
one secret and occult phe-
nomenon for another.
Tom Beard is currently
Chairman of the Far
West Texas Water
Planning Group, which
was established by
Senate Bill 1 of the 75th
Legislature to craft a
water plan for Far West
Texas.
THEN: In 1880, two Bos-
ton tennis champs about to
compete in a Staten Island
tournament were stunned to
find the balls to be used were
only two-thirds the size of
those they played with in
Boston. The committee dis-
missed their protest, pointing
out that each ball was clearly
stamped “Regulation.” The
committee won the argu-
ment; the players lost the
match. This incident led to
the formation of the United
States Tennis Association.
Roy Millard and Pona Lynch exchanged wedding vows January 5 2000, in
SchiW Se MSh !ynch Age ^week, and the eldest grandchild. Asia Rose Abraham Age 18,
^ere also in attendance. Reverand Paul Crowell, officiated A reception Allowed ali the IPrescott Res rt
'This is quite a time in my life - and I still have great admiration and love for all the friends Dell City, a
want to share this with them.” -Love, Pona and Roy.
duty to him. With the state of
the science of hydrology to-
day, that is not a difficult bur-
den. „
How do we impose the duty ?
If we do impose the duty, how
burdensome is it? The answer
is pretty simple. If the Texas
Legislature will amend the
Texas Water Code to provide
that any landowner producing
water from his land has a duty
to consider the effects on the
aquifer from which he is
pumping and on adjoining
landowners, we will have fixed
the problem. And we will have
fixed it without burdensome
regulations and the involve-
ment of bureaucrats and poli-
ticians in our business and on
our land.
Is it a fair burden to place on
the pumper, to use the word
we coined above? To make
sure he considers the rights
of the pumpee? If he can
demonstrate a reasonabe
reliance on readily available
information-such as data
from a local groundwater con-
servation district or the Texas
Water Development Board,
for example-that needs to be
enough. Even if the data was
wrong. After all, there is no
certainty here, even though
water is not the secret and
occult phenomenon that the
Texas Supreme Court thought
it was 96 years ago.
A standard of strict liability
is the wrong standard, in
other words, we do not want a
conclusion that you are liable
to me if you inadvertently
damage the water under my
land. What we are talking
about here is reasonable
people acting responsibly.
That should not be too much
to ask. We ask it already in
most other areas of the law
and it forms the basis of civil
society.
It is not a complicated solu-
tion. It is a market-based so-
lution, a solution based on
choices. The pumpor decides
how badly he wants the water
and what risks he is willing to
assume based on the data
“A poet can survive any-
thing but a misprint." wMe
NOTICE
THE STATE OF TEXAS ;
COUNTY OF HUDSPETH
NOTICE is hereby
given that a hearing
will be held on the 3rd
day of April, 2000 at
10:00 a.m. in the
County Courthouse of
the above named
County in Sierra
Blanca, Texas, on the
application of the
hereinafter named
owner for a license to
sell beer at retail at a
location not
heretofore licensed.
The substance of said
application is as
follows:
Type of license or
Bermit, Beer Retail
ealer’s Off-Premise
License.
Exact location of
business, 305 Turley
Avenue “C”, Fort
Hancock, Texas
79839.
Name of
owners,
Estrada.
' Assumed .
name, Frank’s Depot.
Any person shall be
permitted to contest
the facts stated in said
application and the
applicant’s right to
secure said license, or
permit upon giving
security for costs as
provided by law.
WITNESS MY HAND
this the 13th day of
March, 2000.
Patricia Bramblett
County Clerk
Hudspeth County, TX
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Lynch, Mary Louise. Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 29, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 2000, newspaper, March 24, 2000; Dell City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1179009/m1/7/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .