Texas cities battle over water supplies

Two cities and the Texas A&M University System are suing to stop a project that would send up to 89 million gallons per day of groundwater some 80 miles away to other fast-growing towns.

The conflict highlights the need for Texas boomtowns to secure enough drinking water to continue to grow, and could portend more battles over the precious resource. The lawsuit was prompted when Georgetown, the fastest growing city in America for three straight years, signed a contract with a private company to import water from an aquifer underlying an area with a population of 300,000, including the communities of Bryan and College Station.

The mayor of Bryan vowed to fight the water transfer “to the end,” saying it will drain the aquifer of the cities it now serves. Those cities, the mayor says, would be faced with the prospect of halting economic development to cope with a reduced water supply.

The proposed water transfer project is the largest of at least a half dozen similar projects recently completed in central Texas. This battle could be the first of many as Texas cities outgrow their water supplies.

To head off this potential outcome, Texas legislators are funding projects to desalinate seawater, purify salty groundwater, and treat oilfield wastewater to add to the state’s water supply. These solutions are years away from reality, though.