Panhandle Water News, July 2003 Page: Texas
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TXD P050.6 P93 2003/07
1/2212004 T2fla e i0fl1/0
CAR N
POTT R GRAY WHE LER
ARMS CRONGPanhandle
Water News/f
July 2003
FIRST ANNUAL GROUNDWATER SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Bart Wyatt, PGCD Education Dir., congratulates Bart Wyatt and PGCD directors Jim Thompson, Billy Crawford, and Luke Burton receives the 3rd place award
2nd place winner, Amanda Lee. John McKissack, presented the 11 place award to Marla Mathews. from Bart Wyatt.
White Deer - The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District has announced the winners of the first annual PGCD scholarship program. Receiving first place,
a $4,000 scholarship, was Ms. Marla Mathews of Tascosa High School, Amarillo. Second place, a $3,000 scholarship was awarded to Ms. Amanda Lee, Pampa High School.
Receiving third place, a $2,000 scholarship, was Mr. Luke Burton, Pampa High School.
Since this was the first year for the scholarship program, the District was pleased to receive fourteen essays. To be eligible, the applicants were required to be high
school seniors, graduating from counties within the District service area. Other requirements included writing a water-related essay, on a topic chosen by the District, and
enrolling as a full-time student and attending college the fall semester immediately following selection.
Each scholarship applicant was very worthy, each essay was well written, and selection of the best three was extremely tough. We are certain that each scholarship
applicant will become an asset to the university or college they choose.
Ms. Mathews essay, "It is Not for Sale," will be published in the October edition of Panhandle Water News.
Congratulations to the winners, and to all those that applied. Good luck and best wishes on all of your future endeavors!TEXAS GROUNDWATER: YOURS? MINE? OURS?
C. E. Williams, general manager ofPanhandle Groundwater Conservation
District, participated in the 3rd Annual Statewide Water Conference, on May 28.
The half-day conference was held at the George Bush Presidential Conference
Center in College Station and was simulcast to Texas A & M Extension Centers in
San Angelo, Uvalde, El Paso, Vernon, and Amarillo.
Mr. Williams gave participants an overview ofthe District's experience in
issuing high impact pumping permits to Dallas oilman T. Boone Pickens and other
landowners in Roberts County. Due to good water quality in the Ogallala aquifer,
an average saturated thickness of300 feet in the aquifer, sparse population, and land
not suited for irrigated farming, there has been considerable interest in Roberts
County ground water resources in recent years.
Water exportation issues are not new to Panhandle Groundwater District.
The City of Amarillo began pumping water out of the District in the 1950s. Quixx
Corporation, a subsidiary of a local electrical utility, purchased water rights in
Roberts County in the 1970s. Later, they sold 40,000 acres of water rights, and
transferred their High Impact Permits, to Canadian River Municipal Water
Authority. (CRMWA)
Until 1995, PGCD had a rule to prevent ground water transportation out
of the District. Judge Patrick Pirtle, of the 251 District, overturned that rule, in a
summary judgement involving Quixx Corporation and the City of Amarillo. The
District does, however, have the power to regulate production of wells within its
service area.
In 2001, CRMWA began pumping ground water from Roberts County,
blending it with Lake Meredith water and sending it to its 11 member cities,
Amarillo, Borger, Brownfield, Lamesa, Levelland, Lubbock, O'Donnell, Pampa,
Plainview, Slaton, and Tahoka.
The City of Amarillo purchased ground water rights to about 68,000 acres
in Roberts County, and High Impact Permits were granted to them in 2001.
However, their permit prevents pumping water for 25 years. The City of Amarillo's
and CRMWA's permits allow them to pump an acre-foot of water, per year, foreach acre owned.
In September 2001, Pickens and other Roberts County landowners,
collectively called the Mesa Group, applied for permits to pump water, under the
same conditions. CRMWA protested the permits and, "The Panhandle Groundwater
Conservation District was the first district in Texas with a contested case permit,"
Williams said.
After seven public hearings and two years of legal battling, the District
approved High Impact Permits for the Mesa Group, in 2002. The permits expire
after five years, if a buyer for the water is not found. Other restrictions state that
there will be no more than two wells per section; that there will be no wells closer
that one-halfmile to each other; final well locations, ifmoved more that one-quarter
mile, must be an amendment to the permit; and that the final users must adopt and
abide by water conservation and drought contingency plans. Applicants also agree
to drill monitoring wells on each tract, prior to actual pumping, and to provide these
data to the District on a quarterly basis; furnish annual water level measurements
from each producing well; furnish copies of chemical analyses from the well field;
and be bound by the District's rules as they may be amended and the District's
continuing right to supervise and regulate aquifer depletion.
"I think it's a fair agreement for people in the District, as well as those
outside the District," Williams said.
Recalling his experiences, Williams also offered some suggestions to
newly formed ground water conservation districts. "New districts do not have to
do everything their first year," he said. "Their boards and management can't
anticipate all that will happen. It is important to spend some time formulating
procedural rules first, and then base substantive rules on good scientific fact. Water
district rules and management plans must be reasonable and fair to all water users."
He concluded by saying, "Groundwater districts have the opportunity to
address future management of ground water; however, if we stump our toe and
don't do our job well, then the legislature will come in with some other method of
regulation."2
7
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Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District. Panhandle Water News, July 2003, periodical, July 2003; White Deer, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth641643/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.