Big money needed for Texas water shortages.

The Texas Legislature has divided Texas into 16 water districts, with each submitting project recommendations for bond fund allocations. The Brownsville Public Utility Board is contemplating $350 million fu water projects over the next 10 years, but they can fund only 45 percent of them, according

The largest project with the best construction potential under a public-private partnership is a $120-million desalination plant that would produce 25 mgd. The most controversial water project under consideration in the state is a proposed $2-billion pipeline by Mesa Water Inc., owned by Texas oil mogul T. Boone Pickens. It would send groundwater from the Ogalalla Aquifer in the Texas Panhandle south to a reservoir about 100 miles west of Fort. Worth on the Brazos River. The water would then be sold and transmitted to downstream users. The line could deliver water in five years, compared with 25 to 30 years for a new dam or reservoir, but the project is opposed by landowners mid environmentalists in the area.