Double Trouble
By Stefan Budricks, Editor

Car wash operators are torn. Fewer rain days translate into more wash days. However, fewer rain days could also mean slower replenishment of water sources or even their depletion, endangering the availability of the one resource operators cannot do without — water. Car wash operations depend on water —both its absence and its presence.

Earlier this year, the Southeast was struggling with drought conditions. In some areas, car washes were forced to close their doors while others were threatened with closure or were required to curtail their operations. San Antonio’s certification program was again rediscovered (I use the redundancy advisedly, as the program receives renewed attention every time car washes in drought-stricken areas feel threatened). Bill Sartor, San Antonio operator, past president of the International Carwash Association, and co-author of the program, traveled the Southeast to encourage operators and enlighten officials.

No good deed goes unpunished. On June 23, the authority controlling the Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio’s main water source, ordered Stage 1 mandatory groundwater restrictions in response to drought conditions in South Texas. This requires groundwater permit holders, including the San Antonio Water System, to reduce usage from the aquifer by 20 percent. Despite restrictions, the certification program will ensure ongoing operations at all qualifying car wash locations in the city.

It’s tough enough to have to limit business operations because of a lack of water. How much more difficult would it be if water were available but simply unaffordable? This could be a problem in the making. BusinessWeek (June 23, 2008) ran a story on T. Boone Pickens’ view that “water is the new oil” and how he is buying up water rights in the Texas Panhandle with the intent of selling the water to cities such as Dallas. Pickens, an oilman famous for his corporate takeover bids in the ‘80s, is turning the resource into just another commodity.

Salon.com first posted a story on these activities in 2001. The BusinessWeek story finds Pickens much closer to his goal. Already, the magazine says, he owns more water than any other individual in the Unites States — and he’s still buying. He created his own water district and, with a little help from the Texas legislature, acquired a right-of-way to transport the water over private land.

The source of all this water waiting to be sold is another aquifer, one considerably larger than the aquifer serving San Antonio. The Ogallala aquifer stretches from Northern Texas through Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas and into South Dakota and Wyoming. It is one of the largest fresh water aquifers in the world and is estimated to provide the irrigation for one in every five acres under cultivation in the United States.

Its reserves may be huge, but with uncontrolled extraction, Ogallala will, eventually, face depletion. Two years ago, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported that withdrawal of groundwater from the aquifer was in great excess of natural recharge. It made the case that the public’s dependence on groundwater called for control by society over water resources and their use.

That position contrasts sharply with developments in the Texas Panhandle where the quest for commercial control is evident. Texas isn’t unique; the same rush to tie up water rights can be seen elsewhere in the country and the world, according to BusinessWeek. With supplies becoming ever more scarce, water becomes a strong draw for those with profit motive.