Here is what he wrote:
"I was born and raised in El Paso and graduated from El Paso
High in 1960. Drought and water scarcity
were constant issues. Water rationing was periodic; and when our student
club wanted to raise funds by a ‘car washing event’, we had to get special permission.
"I returned to EP in 1975 as a geologist/geochemist, and have
taught at UTEP ever since. I taught 7
years simultaneously in Juarez at UACJ. My interests and professional
activities have naturally expanded to include many environmental issues in El
Paso/Ciudad Juarez, and students have received their degrees studying relevant
topics and we have published scientific articles on some topics. This has
drawn me into regulatory and scientific data about the area. The
world forgets that the ‘low level nuclear waste environmental saga’ which took
place here lasted over a decade. Prof Dave Lemone, County Judge Luther
Jones, and others participated in Phase 1 at Fort Hancock.
"Bill Addington and many others (including myself)
participated in Phase 2 at Sierra Blanca, and we won. (Some from our group slept
on the top of the Cordova Bridge and fasted for 30 days). And then came ASARCO.
Whew!! A history better remembered but we won that too.
"I don’t get involved in environmental issues as much, but
some of the statements in your letter disturbed me, about water in El
Paso. When I was a kid, El Paso always only had 20 years supply left.
That was 1960. When I returned to El Paso in 1975, El Paso had a 20 years
supply of water left. In the 1980s the PSB spent $10M, mainly in
legal fees, challenging 'The Law of the West' that groundwater cannot be
transported across state lines. Through the 1990s El Paso always had a 20
year water supply left. Look at the reports. And then things begin
to change. The PSB went out and purchased ranches with water rights north
and south of Van Horn, Texas, with the idea of future pipelines. And then
the 2000s came along, and, a near miracle: the desal plant
(desalinization). The military would not have expanded Ft. Bliss is that
had not happened. Largest inland such plant in the
world. An incredible effect on El Paso’s resources. You
now read 30 years and 50 years for the future water supply.
Actually, it is 100s of years. (Just don’t tell people, because they want to
think otherwise.) So, I do not believe El Paso is running out of water,
and I think this is a false fear. Import water? PSB owns the
ranches; you cannot import water from New Mexico or Mexico. Under the El
Paso airport, there is 9,000 feet (vertical) of salty water, and that extends
to the NM state line. So you calculate how many cubic miles of water that
is that we have to send through a desal plant. That’s why I say we have
100s of years supply. However, we still must conserve water."
When Dr. Goodell speaks, I listen. We discussed this "difference" of ours briefly yesterday just before we said "goodbye". I'm not sure that we disagree on the quantity of the water but on the quality and maybe on the rate of recharge. With global warming and drought, the recharge of the Mesilla Bolson by the river will certainly decline. The interplay between desal and the Hueco Bolson is unclear. Salt contamination of wells near the airport occurred due to over-pumping the bolson thus the the desal wells are located to intercept brackish water from potable. As a friend of mine who eats, sleeps and drinks this stuff says: "If you can over-pump the bolson and draw salt, then you can over-pump the salt and draw potable."
All of this is as clear as mud to me. I gathered that Dr. Goodell doesn't dispute the quality of water but clearly he believes that the desal plant will make all of the water in the Hueco Bolson available to us for hundreds of years and not 20, 30 or 50. That and importation give him hope. I'm not confident that we will because of politics import water. He and I do agree that desalinating the water and importing water will ultimately mean more expensive water. We both agree that "we still must conserve water."
