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FACTS ABOUT WATER - TEXAS

• Texas has almost as much surface water as the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota, which has some 4,790 square miles of surface water.
• Texas has 9 major aquifers and 11,247 named streams. - Texas Almanac & USGS.
• Texas' surface water belongs to the state; its groundwater belongs to the landowner.
• Texas is the only state in the U.S. that has a "right to capture" law for its ground water.
• Texas law allows landowners to capture and sell any and all water found directly under their properties, even if that water comes from a shared resources and even if doing so poses a threat to the share supply.
• Although over 50% of the state of Texas is desert, water lies underneath 81% of the state. - Texas Almanac, p. 66
• About 60% of the water used yearly in Texas derives from underground formations. - Texas Almanac, p. 66
• Nearly 80% of the ground water produced in 2000 was used for irrigating crops. - - Texas Almanac, p. 66
• San Antonio is at the epicenter of Texas' water crisis. - Environmental Attorney Jim Blackburn.
• In 20 years, Houston will be stretched beyond its current water supply.
• Ground water pumping has caused significant subsidence in the Houston-Galveston area.
• The increase of urban development, and with it, impervious cover, has contributed to Houston's recent, catastrophic flooding.
• Galveston Bay produces more oysters than any single body of water in America.
• The Port of Houston Authority has created oyster reefs in Galveston Bay from channel dredge material.
• In 1990, Texas and California had the highest water withdrawals rates in the United States.
• The Rio Grande River now stops short of the Gulf of Mexico.
• "Water is a finite resource that requires careful and proactive management: the era of plentiful and inexpensive water in Texas is ending." - Introduction to "An Assessment of Water Conservation in Texas, Prepared for the 78th Texas Legislature (2003), Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board & Texas Water Development Board.
• In a state where oil flows plentifully, now "water is indeed Texas's most precious natural resource." - Introduction to "An Assessment of Water Conservation in Texas, Prepared for the 78th Texas Legislature (2003), Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board & Texas Water Development Board.

FACTS ABOUT WATER - THE UNITED STATES

• Annually, Americans consume more water per capita (1677 cubic meters), than any other country in the world, including India and China combined. - The Center for Economic and Social Rights, Right to Water Fact Sheet #1.
• Enough water evaporates from Lake Powell each year to supply Los Angeles with water for the same period of time.
• Wetlands are becoming wastelands due to dumping, upstream water draw-off, water diversion, and urban development.
• Each year, Louisiana loses 35 square miles of bayous to the Gulf of Mexico due to erosion, urban development, oil and gas drilling and silt diversion from levees and canals on the Mississippi River.
• Without a barrier of healthy wetlands, a category 5 hurricane could cause up to 100,000 deaths in New Orleans.
• Headwater advantage: upstream agriculture has siphoned off enough water so that 2 major rivers in the American West - the Colorado and the Rio Grande - no longer reach the sea.
• Up to 3.5 million Americans get sick from fetid water each year.
• In 20 years, Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Houston and other western cities will be in the grip of severe water shortages. - U.S. Dept. of Interior.
• California sea otters are dying from a protozoan believed to come from cat litter washed out to sea. - University of California
• The Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from north Texas to South Dakota, is the largest aquifer in North America. - Texas Almanac, p. 67
• 96% of the water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer is used for irrigation. - Texas Almanac, p. 67
• The Ogallala Aquifer waters one-fifth of the nation's irrigated land. - "High Noon at the Ogallala Aquifer," 1 Feb 01, by Jacques Leslie, salon.com,
• Unlike rivers and spring-fed aquifers, water in the Ogallala Aquifer cannot be replenished. It holds "fossil water," sealed underground for hundreds of thousands of years. Once it's used, it's gone forever.
• The shortest river in the United States is Texas' 2.5-mile, spring-fed Comal River.

• U.S. and Canada have jointly cleaned up Lake Erie, which in 1970 was literally dying. Now, fish life is booming.
• More than 100 dams have been removed in the U.S., reviving rivers and aquatic habitat.
• Fishermen in California have led efforts to restore salmon habitat and better manage the squid fishery.
• The Port of Houston Authority is creating oyster reefs in Galveston Bay from channel dredge material.

FACTS ABOUT WATER - GLOBAL

• The world is now using 52% of the available fresh water.
• Water consumption is growing at twice the rate of population.
• About 60% of the human body is made up of water.
• 70% of the human brain is made up of water.
• Over 20% of the world's population (over 1 billion people) lack access to safe drinking water. - Center for New American Dream, "Enough!", quarterly report.
• By 2025, nearly 50% of the world's population (at least 3.5 billion people) will face water scarcity. -World Resources Institute
• Agriculture accounts for about 75% of water consumption worldwide, mostly for irrigation. Industry accounts for about 20%; domestic the remaining 5%.
• Annually, Americans consume more water per capita (1677 cubic meters), than any other country in the world, including India and China combined. - The Center for Economic and Social Rights, Right to Water Fact Sheet #1.
• 90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers and streams without any treatment. - The Center for Economic and Social Rights, Right to Water Fact Sheet #1.
• 80% of all sickness and disease worldwide is attributed to unsafe drinking water. - The Center for Economic and Social Rights, Right to Water Fact Sheet #1.
• Over 300 million people in Africa lack reasonable access to safe water and adequate sanitation. 'In 25 Years, Half the World Will Be Short of Water', Baba Galleh Jallow All Africa.com, 21 Mar 01
• Water-borne diseases - such as the cholera and dysentery currently rampant in southern Africa - kill an estimated 3 million people every year. - United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
• Half the world's rivers and lakes are seriously polluted. - In a message to mark World Water Day, Khalid Mohtadullah, Executive Secretary of the Global Water Partnership.
• 90% of large fish in the oceans are gone, due to commercial fishing.
• "At least 20% of the Earth's 10,000 fresh water fish species are now endangered, threatened with extinction or already extinct." - "Hydro Dynamics" by Sandra Postel, Natural History, May 2003.
• The world has 76,000 dams, diverting over 250,000 rivers for irrigation and drinking water.
• On average, people have built four dams a day, for the past half century.
• Water draws for agriculture are turning the Aral Sea into a dust bowl.
• Israel controls the lion's share of the water in the Jordan basin, and Israeli settlers consume about five times more water per capita than do the Palestinians. - "Hydro Dynamics" by Sandra Postel, Natural History, May 2003.
• In 2002, the United Nations resolved that sufficient and safe drinking water is a basic human right.
• The United Nations has passed a recommendation to proclaim the decade 2005-2015 the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life'. The decade would start on World Water Day (March 22) 2005. - www.unesco.org/water

• Oceans, unlike land, cannot be placed in a private trust for conservation. The oceans are a public trust.
• Texas is the only state in the U.S. that has a "right to capture law".
• Texas law allows landowners to capture and sell any and all water found directly under their properties, even if that water comes from a shared resources and even if doing so poses a threat to the share supply.
• As an example: Noted takeover businessman T. Boone Pickens reportedly plans to sell 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater from under his Texas ranch, which sits on the Ogallala Aquifer, to the cities of El Paso and Dallas. - "High Noon at the Ogallala Aquifer," by Jacques Leslie, Salon.com, 1 Feb 2001
• 80% of the privatized water supply is controlled by a handful of multinational corporations.

• In many cultures and religions, water represents, birth, renewal, cleansing and purifying.
• In the funeral rites of the Hindu, their earthly remains are cremated and returned to the holy River Ganges.
• Since the time Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, Christians have acknowledged their faith with water baptism.
• In Islam, water is important for cleansing and purifying. Muslims must be ritually pure before approaching God in prayer.
• A mikveh is a Jewish ritual bath used for cleansing after contact with a dead body or after menstruation. In Ancient times, people had to be purified with a mikveh before they could enter the Temple area.
• The sanctity of water is very important to Zoroastrians. People must not urinate, spit or wash one's hands in a river, or allow anyone else to.
• Cultures all over the world have their own version of the Great Flood.

• Water has become more precious than oil, taking on the term, "Blue Gold".
• Unlike oil, water is necessary for life.
• A gallon of bottled water costs more than a gallon of oil.
• Water and oil are non-renewable resources. But oil can be replaced with other forms of energy. Water is finite, and is an irreplaceable resource
• The world bottled water market represents an annual volume of 89 billion litres, and is estimated to be worth US$ 22 billion.
• So valuable is water in arid areas of the world, that Heads of State use it to leverage political power. "In response to Syria's 1992 requests for more Euphrates River water, Suleyman Demirel, then Turkey's prime minister, reportedly remarked, 'We don't say we share their oil resources. They can't say they share our water resources.'" - "Hydro Dynamics" by Sandra Postel, Natural History, May 2003.