Upriver water plan could affect border towns

By Zach Lindsey
LAREDO MORNING TIMES
Published: Monday, April 19, 2010 1:25 AM CDT

A company’s plan to pump 14 billion gallons a year from the Rio Grande watershed in Pecos County could affect drinking water for dozens of border communities, according to Jay Johnson Castro of the Rio Grande International Study Center.

Rancher Clayton Williams wants to export the water, which runs through property he owns, to an industrial customer in Midland.

But environmental groups fear the impact on the watershed, and Texas State Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio is afraid of the legal precedent that the water exportation would create.

Now, an April 20 hearing with the Pecos County Water District could decide the fate of Williams’ plan.

To many in Ft. Stockton in Pecos County, Clayton “Claytie” Williams, who made a failed run for the governor’s seat in 1990, is a hometown kind of guy.

But his plan has many people worried, and Uresti hasn’t softened on the issue.

“Sen. Uresti fought this plan when it first came up during the legislative session last year, and he will continue to do so,” said Mark Langford, media spokesman for Uresti.

Williams filed an application to export the water, which all sits on land he owns, in April 2008. Initially, the district called his application administratively incomplete.

They since have ruled the application complete.

Currently, Williams uses about that much water irrigating his alfalfa crops, but much of that water may return to the aquifer, meaning the use does not place a burden on the river downstream.

Johnson-Castro said there has been no scientific assessment of the impact that taking that water away from the Rio Grande watershed will have on downstream drinking water.

“Nobody downriver has a clue,” Johnson-Castro said.

The amount of water Williams plans to pump out equals about 41 million gallons a day, which is more than half the amount that Laredo’s 65 million gallon plant typically produces.

Although the impact will be spread out along the Pecos River and the Rio Grande, Johnson-Castro worried about the combined impact of a serious drought and the increased drain on the river’s sources.

In 2001, a drought drained so much river water that the river didn’t make it all the way to the ocean, but, instead, dried up around 20 to 30 miles from its confluence with the ocean.

With no long-term scientific research on the effects of pumping so much water from the river, Johnson-Castro worries the combination of pumping and a drought could cause even more profound problems, especially for Brownsville.

“We want to go all the way to the top,” Johnson-Castro said. He plans to talk to representatives of the International Boundaries and Water Commission, as well as Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

He was not too concerned with local agencies at this point.

Until a thorough scientific study is mandated by federal agencies, Johnson-Castro is uncomfortable with Williams’ plan.

Johnson-Castro also worried about the possible “domino” effect that success for Williams would create.

“If he succeeds, it’s going to be the first domino (of) robbing from the natural flow of the Rio Grande,” Johnson-Castro said.

The Williams family actually has a history with water-related legalese.

In the 1950s, Clayton Williams’ father was involved in a lawsuit because over-pumping on his part caused the springs that lead to the Pecos River to dry up.

That court case, which Williams won, defined the rule of capture, a law that Williams Jr. is evoking in this instance.

A hearing examiner out of Austin will preside at the April 20 meeting at the Large Community Hall in Ft. Stockton.

The hearing examiner will hear public comment and determine the next step for Williams.

(Zach Lindsey may be reached at 728-2538 or zach@lmtonline.com)