Water for TexasCounty Officials Serve on Regional Planning Groups

The Panhandle Water Planning Area (PWPA) has the highest per capita water consumption rate of any area in the state, said Roberts County Judge Vernon Cook, with some 90 percent used for crop irrigation. About 95 percent of the area’s water needs are met via the Ogallala Aquifer.
“Our approach has been that the Ogallala is a finite resource,” said Cook, vice chair of the PWPA water planning group. “When the Ogallala is depleted, we have no alternative, and that’s a real concern.”
Cook is one of several county judges and commissioners serving on the state’s regional water planning groups charged with helping plan for the water needs of the entire state up until the year 2050.
In 1997, the 75th Legislature’s Senate Bill 1 mandated this grassroots regional process creating 16 regions and water planning groups and culminating in a comprehensive state water plan titled “Water for Texas