Water for Texas

Rain fell last week on east Texas and scattered sections of west Texas. The rain, plus announcement of an $8,000,000 federal-aid program, brightened the spirits of drought-stricken Texas ranchers. The rush to ship cattle to the stockyards tapered off, and beef rose $1 to $4 per 100 lbs. But the drought was far from over. And when and if it does end, Texas' water problems will be far from solved.

The hard fact is that Texas simply does not have enough water in the right places to support its fast-growing population, industry and agriculture. This week, in a 96-page report that took 3 1/2 years to prepare, the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation told just how serious the Texas water problem is and what can be done to solve it. The cost: $1.2 billion.

Thirsty Industries. The source of the trouble, the report says, is that while the population of Texas has grown only 20% since 1940, the use of water has increased 150% because of the expansion of petroleum, chemical and other industries, and the increase in irrigated land. At the present rate of growth, the supply of water will have to be increased from one to five times in various parts of the state. If the supply is not increased, the water shortage will stop the growth.

The survey, prompted by Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, treated each section of Texas separately (see map):

P: The arid Pecos Valley-Trans Pecos area must get along on what it has; bringing in more water would be too expensive.

P: In the High Plains area, from the top of the panhandle to south of Lamesa, one of the big cotton-growing areas of the U.S., withdrawals for irrigation have been steadily lowering the water table. The solution is to bring water from the Canadian River to eleven cities through a system of aqueducts, an $85 million project authorized by Congress. About 95% of the costs will be repaid by the cities.

P: In the Red Bed region (from the Red River to the country south of Abilene), the study recommended that reservoirs and distribution systems be built and financed through "multicity projects," in which two or more cities get together to develop ground and surface water sources.

P: In the Edwards Plateau section, which is west of San Antonio, supplies are adequate for its small cities and "range-stock economy," and additional projects can be financed by state or municipal funds.

Pattern for Progress. It is along the Gulf Coast, where Texas has had its greatest industrial growth, that the state has its major water problem. To the east of Corpus Christi are flooding rivers, and to the west, drought has brought a "little dust bowl." The Bureau recommends a vast $1.1 billion project to build reservoirs along the eastern rivers and channel their flow into a "trans-basin water supply canal," which would swing in a broad arc parallel to the coast and would irrigate 1,000,000 acres of dust-dry farmland. Estimated costs: $370 million for the reservoirs, $680 million for the conduit and pumping lifts, $50 million for irrigation.

By distributing water along the coast, the report said, this area could raise its income from $2.9 billion annually to $8.4 billion. Such industrial and agricultural prosperity could easily repay the costs of the entire project. Said the report: engineering problems would be simple compared to those Southern California encountered in bringing water from the Colorado River to the Los Angeles area.

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