Robert Mace: Big Ideas for a Big State, TWCA Fall Conference 2015
1. Big Ideas for a Big State:
The History (and Recent Pastโฆ) of
Water Importation to Texas
Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., P.G.
Texas Water Development Board
presented to
Texas Water Conservation Association
San Antonio, Texas, October 16, 2015
2. The following presentation is based upon
professional research and analysis within the
scope of the Texas Water Development
Boardโs statutory responsibilities and
priorities but, unless specifically noted, does
not necessarily reflect official Board positions
or decisions.
5. โข Letter from LBJ to U.S.
Department of Interior in 1949
โข Bureau of Reclamation
completed study in 1952
โข Webb โtranslatedโ the report
in 1954
6. โข 367 miles
โข 200-feet wide, 15-feet deep
โข 12.3 million acre-feet
โข $1.1 billion
โข $9.8 billion in 2015
10. โข 1,151,000 square miles
โข 593,000 cfs on average
โ 430 million acre-feet per year
โข 3,065,000 cfs for a high
โข 159,000 cfs for a low
The Mighty Mississippi
Texas: 270,000 square miles
cfs = cubic feet per second
Texas: 61,000 cfs
11.
12. โข 5.8 million acre-feet per year
โข 1,400 miles; 71 pumping stations
โข $6.3 billion in 1968
โข $43 billion in 2015
โข $300 per acre-foot in 1968
โข $2,000 per acre-foot in 2015
13.
14.
15. โข Bond proposal of $3.5 billion was placed
before voters in 1969 [$24b in 2015 $s]
โข Would bring East Texas water to San Antonio
and Houston for municipal and industrial
needs
โข Failed 315,793 to 309,516
โ Houston voted against it 66,719 to 13,431
16.
17.
18. โข 5.8 million acre-feet per year
โข >1,000 miles
โข >14,000 miles of laterals
โข $20.5 billion in 1968
โข $140 billion in 2015
โข ~$330 per acre-foot in 1968
โข $2,200 per acre-foot in 2015
19.
20. โข ~1,000 miles
โข 1.3 to 8.7 million acre-feet per year
โข $5 to 28 billion in 1982
โข $13 to 70 billion in 2015
โข $570 to 430 per acre-foot in 1968
โข $1,400 to $1,000 per acre-foot in 2015
21. Billboard art by Mark Heckman, posted by Citizens for Michiganโs Future
26. (from Sewell 1967)
J.M. Parsons and Co.
1965
โข Catchment of 1.3 million square miles
โข 158 million acre-feet (80 for U.S.)
โข One lake in the plan would be 500 miles
long and hold 500 million acre-feet
โข One dam would be 1,700 feet tall
โข Would irrigate an additional 40 million
acres in the U.S.; triple irrigation in Mexico
โข $100 billion in 1965
โข $760 billion in 2015
Senator Moss: โThis is a plan that will not roll
over and die. It may be fifty years or it may be
a hundred years, but something like it will be
built.โ
28. (from Tinney 1967)
โข 150 million acre-feet
โข No constructed storage
โข $33 billion in 1967
โข $252 billion in 2015
29. โข 0.5 to 60 million acre-feet per year
โข 3,200 miles
โข $82 billion in 2009
โข $90 billion in 2015
2009
30.
31.
32. editor of โTexas Waterโ, publication of
the Texas Water Conservation
Association, in 1966:
โTexas is going to have to get
along on the water resources
within its own borders for a
long time to come.โ
33. Why itโs so hard to import waterโฆ
โข โYou want to do what?!?!?โ
โข Permitting
โข Property rights
โข Cost
โข Big water requires big customers
โข Environmental impacts
โข Local (and more affordable) solutions
34.
35. Big Ideas for a Big State:
The History (and Recent Pastโฆ) of
Water Importation to Texas
Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., P.G.
Texas Water Development Board
(512)936-0861
robert.mace@twdb.texas.gov
www.linkedin.com/in/robertemace