It could raise money to help build better pipelines. It could also tame consumption, perhaps by as much as 20 percent in some areas. Meanwhile, however, T. Boone Pickens, an erstwhile corporate raider, has been working on the supply side. He has been busy buying water rights in western Texas, setting up a consortium of landowners who have agreed to sell him their water at a given price. The cities would pay on a sliding scale, depending on the distance Pickens has to pump the stuff.
Environmentalists have reason to worry, too.
The Ogallala replenishes itself at a rate of less than one acre-foot a year. In these circumstances water extraction is little different from mining. In theory, such water is protected by Texas's Groundwater Conservation Districts. But the state's strong tradition of property rights limits the GCDs' ability to control men like Pickens. C.E. Williams, general manager of the Panhandle's Groundwater Conservation District No. 3, which deals with Pickens, thinks the current crisis justifies pumping up to 50 percent of the Ogallala.