A Dallas millionaire is seeking permission to drill into the massive Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to explore how much water is available. His enterprise, if fully realized, could drain 15.9 billion gallons of water from the massive body each year — more than triple the amount the city of Longview uses in a year.
Kyle Bass, through his company Conservation Equity Management, sees opportunity in the expanse of the aquifer, which has gone largely unstudied, to quench the thirst of the growing state. He purchased more than 11,000 acres in East Texas and plans to install more than 40 high-capacity water wells in Anderson, Houston and Henderson counties.
His neighbors have rung the alarm bells. Residents who rely on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer — which extends millions of acres from western Louisiana through East Texas to the Mexico border — have had to dig deeper to access its groundwater. Locals worry this operation would dry out their personal wells, wells used for business purposes and the small springs that wildlife and ranches in the region rely upon. Experts, local leaders, and residents told lawmakers in an 11-hour hearing this month that the negative impacts could be innumerable…