Texas Farmers Battle Ogallala Pumping Limits

[white cloud]

FLOYDADA — J.O. Dawdy, who has been a farmer for 36 years, is so worried about getting enough groundwater that he is considering a lawsuit to protect his right to it.

As sleet pounded his West Texas farmhouse one recent afternoon, Dawdy and three other farmers said that new regulations — which limit the amount of water they can withdraw from the Ogallala Aquifer and require that new wells have meters to measure use — could have crippling effects on their livelihoods.

“We view it as a real property-rights violation,” said Dawdy, who grows cotton. If the restrictions had been in place last year during the drought, he said, his land would not have produced a crop.
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-environmental-news/water-supply/texas-farmers-regulators-battle-over-ogallala/

[hobbit709]

1. And if they used a more efficient and less wasteful irrigation system rather than the California

rainmakers, maybe they wouldn't need so much water.

[ashling]

4. Sorry, I am a little slow today

could you explain your reference to California rainmakers?

[hobbit709]

5. Those giant sprinkler systems that move around the fields

They waste about 90% of the water used.

[ashling]

7. Thanks

I wonder what the loss is as compared to open canals

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Better hurry and use it up before it's all gone. nt

[Speck Tater]

3. Like the native who cut down the very last tree on Easter Island

They will wake up one morning and realize there's no water left. I'll bet THAT will have a "crippling effect on their livelihoods".

[newfie11]

6. here in Nebraska we've had meters for sometime nt