Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Pickens wants Texas agency to nix water plan

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens wants a court to derail state approval of a water management plan that he claims would take $10 million off the value of his groundwater rights in the Texas Panhandle. Pickens' attorney, Marty Jones, said Tuesday that the oilman filed a lawsuit against the Texas Water Development Board last month. The suit came after the board endorsed a plan that Pickens claims will take as many as 18,000 acre feet of water a year from the Ogallala Aquifer under land belonging to him and another rancher. One acre foot equals about 326,000 gallons. The lawsuit says the combined plans of three groundwater conservation districts in the Panhandle management area will devalue Mesa Water LP's rights and those of a nearby rancher. Pickens, who has been trying for years to sell water from the Panhandle to thirsty cities to the south, wants a Travis County court to declare the plan unreasonable. That would force the districts to revise their proposals. The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is representing the water board, filed a response to Pickens' suit denying each claim...more

He needs the money so his wife can build a wild horse refuge.

1 comment:

johnr said...

let T. Boners fifth or sixth wife get the money and get her horse heaven going. She will see that a horse will eat up the money faster than a piss ant can eat a bale of hay of which people in Platte County will pay to watch