Midland Awl Bidness Fine; Water Lacking -1/10th Inch Of Rain Since October, Reservoirs Falling Fast

[hatrack]

MIDLAND — The oil business is booming, but there is something more precious in Midland right now: water. Since the beginning of October, barely one-tenth of an inch of rain has fallen on the oil and gas capital of West Texas. Two of the three reservoirs that Midland and other Permian Basin communities rely on for most of their water are getting close to empty. The third is below 30 percent of capacity.

This month, for the first time, Midland imposed water restrictions, forcing homeowners to water their lawns less, and schools to let their football fields grow a little scrubbier. If the rain does not start soon, “it’s going to get bad,” said Stuart Purvis, the utilities manager for Midland.

EDIT

Without significant rain, all three reservoirs may be dry by January 2013, according to John Grant, the general manager for the Colorado River Municipal Water District, which supplies reservoir water to Midland, Odessa and several other cities. Lake Ivie (pictured) is the fullest at just below 30 percent capacity; the other two reservoirs are only about 5 percent and 2 percent full. The district also pumps some groundwater from Ward County, west of Odessa, but expanding production would require building a pipeline that would cost $75 million to $100 million and that engineers say would take 30 months (Grant thinks it could be done faster).

The region’s groundwater, in fact, also has its own problems. Some of it contains high amounts of fluorides, arsenic or chlorides. Using more groundwater could require a desalination plant, which would cost tens of millions of dollars. Already, many Permian Basin residents fill up bottles at filtered-water kiosks on the street rather than drinking the tap water directly, because even the lake water has a high, although harmless, chloride content and it tastes odd.

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http://www.texastribune.org/texas-environmental-news/water-supply/drought-plagued-midland-texas-is-running-out-of/

[virgogal]

1. I've got friends from the Northeast who moved there several years

ago and just love it.

Maybe these conditions will change their minds.