The Cross Section, Volume 21, Number 5, May 1975 Page: 1
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AGR/CULTU
- INDUS T RI A LA Monthly Publication of the High Plains Underground Water Conservatior
Volume 21-No. 5 "THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR WATER"District No. I
May, 1975129 Witnesses Testify Before FPC
In Natural Gas Priority CaseDistrict Manager Frank Rayner testifies before the
(FPC) in Washington, D.C., on April 22. Since April
mony from 129 witnesses in Washington, Lubbock,
querque, New Mexico.Federal Power Commission
8, the FPC has heard testi-
Phoenix, Arizona, and Albu-Groundwater Reserves Valuable to U.S.
BODY OF WATER
Oceans
Polar ice caps and glaciers
on continents
Main root zone
(upper three feet)
Fresh water lakes
Saline lakes and inland seas
Atmosphere
Rive-rs -and streamsVOLUME
(Cubic Miles)
317 million
7.3 million
6 million
30,000
25,000
3,100
280The idea that deliveries of natural
gas for irrigation should be considered
an "industrial use" was challenged by
High Plains irrigation farmers May 15
and 16, when Federal Power Commis-
sion (FPC) Administrative Law Judge
Curtis L. Wagner, Jr., held a local
hearing in Lubbock.
The order for the hearing was a re-
sult of the FPC's December 19, 1974,
ruling (Opinion 697-A) that lowered
the priority of natural gas for fueling
irrigation engines from priority No. 2
(commercial) to priority No. 3 (indus-
trial). According to the FPC's curtail-
ment plan, commercial use is defined
as "service to customers engaged pri-
marily in the sale of goods or services
including institutions and local, state,
and federal government agencies for
uses other than those involving manu-
facturirqg or electric power generation."
Definition of Industrial Use
Industrial use is defined as "service
to customers engaged primarily in a
process which creates or changes raw
or unfinished materials into. another
form or product including the genera-
tion of electric power"
Some intervenors questioned the
need to make agriculture and industry
competitive by placing them in the
same category. According to the FPC's
plan, agriculture and industry would
be curtailed at the same time in the
event of shortages.
The FPC's ruin onl affects El
Paso eNatural Gas Company, serving
California, Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas withh 85 percent of its supply
going to California); however, area
farmers believe that the final ruling
will set precedent and ultimately affect
all pipelines in the country. El Paso
delivers natural gas across state lines,
which is under the jurisdiction of the
Federal government through the FPC,FPC issued Order 697-A, giving opin-
ions on all motions for rehearing and,
at the same time, lowering irrigation
use in El Paso's curtailment plan.
Motion for Rehearing Denied
El Paso's motion for a rehearing was
denied, but the Commission, on March
21, 1975, scheduled an expedited hear-
ing, as a result of a storm of protest
from farm officials, natural gas com-
panies and gas user groups from across
the irrigation belt. The hearing was
ordered to consider El Paso's "process
gas" conclusion, and also to consider
petitions for extraordinary relief which
may be filed by various irrigation cus-
tomers seeking to maintain necessary
deliveries, in case it is determined that
irrigation uses do not fall within the
process gas definition and the evidence
indicates that they nevertheless should
be exempted from curtailment for
other reasons.
Process gas is that for which alter-
nate fuels are not technically feasible,
as in applications requiring precise
temperature controls and precise flame
characteristics. For purposes of this
definition, the FPC does not consider
propane and other gaseous fuels as
alternate fuels.
During the Lubbock hearing, called
-continued on page 2 . .. FPCPoor geographic distribution of
water is a problem which High Plains
irrigation farmers realize and accept
daily in their efforts to avail themselves
of the groundwater stored in the Ogal-
lala aquifer. However, the problem on
a world-wide scale is not easy to real-
ize without some statistics which reveal
the size and uneven distribution of the
land and bodies of water-.
The November -December, 1974,
issue of the Johnson Drillers' Journal
studied in depth the distribution of the
world's water supplies. Some of those
figures are reproduced in the summary
below.
According to encyclopedic data, the
total surface area of the earth is ap-
proximately 197 million square miles.
Of this total, almost 71 percent-i39
million square miles - is covered by
oceans, and about 3.4 percent, or 6.9
million square miles, is covered by
polar ice caps and glaciers.
Fresh Water Lakes
Natural fresh water lakes comprise
an area of about 330,000 square miles,
and natural saline lakes cover 270,000
square miles. These figures respective-
ly correspond to .17 and .14 percent
of the surface of the globe. The dry
land of the continents and islands rep-
resents 25.4 percent of the globe, or
an area of about 50 million square
miles.
The world's supply of water is esti-
mated, by volume, in the chart in the
next column.The groundwater found in the
earth's crust to a depth of half a mile
is approximately one million cubic
miles uppr three feet of the soil There
exists probably another equal amount
in the earth's crust between the depth
of one-half and two miles.
The quantity of water found on the
land areas constitutes only three per-
cent of the world's water supply-the
other 97 percent is in the oceans.
Since the conversion of salt water to
fresh water is economically infeasible
on a large scale, the inland areas will
probably continue to receive water
from the sea only indirectly-.
As for the quantity of fresh water,
the great bulk of this resource is not
actually available to man. In reality,
only about one-eighth of the total can
be developed for beneficial use.
Much of the groundwater at depths
greater than one-half mile is economb-
cally inaccessible at present or is
-cont. on page 4.. . GROUNDWATERbut intrastate transfers of natural gas
(which are more common in the Texas
High Plains) might be jeopardized by
failure of the FPC to eventually re-
evaluate irrigation's use of natural gas
in its overall curtailment plan.
Review of El Paso Case
In 1971, the FPC ordered all inter-
state gas lines to prepare curtailment
plans in case of future shortages. El
Paso's plan was rejected by the FPC-.
In June, 1974, the Commission issued
Order 697, a permanent curtailment
plan, which conflicted with El Paso's.
Thus, on December 19, 1974, theJoe R. Carroll
Appointed to TWRC
Burke Holman of Houston, recently-
appointed member to the Texas Water
Rights Commission, asked Governor
Dolph Briscoe to withdraw his name
from nomination to the Commission
on May 23. Holman, appointed by
Briscoe on June 28, 1974, to fill the
unexpired term of Otha F. Dent, with-
drew his name because of opposition
to his confirmation in the Senate.
On May 23, Governor Briscoe ap-
pointed Joe R. Carroll, a Snyder at-
torney, to serve the remainder of
Dent's term (which expires in Febru-
ary, 1977) and submitted his name to
the Senate for advice and consent.
Carroll, a Baylor graduate maintain-
ing a private law practice in Snyder,
served under Attorney General Will
Wilson as Assistant Attorney General
of Texas.
Carroll will join Joe Carter of Sher-
man and Dorsey Hardeman of San
Angelo on the Commission.SUN/C/PAL
_ --'4
IflOliL
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High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 (Tex.). The Cross Section, Volume 21, Number 5, May 1975, periodical, May 1975; Lubbock, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1533002/m1/1/?q=%22~1%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.