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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1981)
THE BATTALION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1981 Page 7 itate \tiites discuss water importation Clements says Texas is thirsty United Press International SANTA FE, N.M. — Texas G iv. William Clements says Con- jpss will fund a multi-billion dol- § project to import water to a (l-state region if the world de- Kmds agricultural products from nt area. 1 He made his comments at a Iws conference Wednesday at dje annual meeting of the six-state Plains Study Council. 1 “It’s a question of how hungry * become,” Clements said. “If le demand is there, we will put le water on the high plains, lere’s no doubt about that,” he Id. □ Clements also said Texas is fac- critical water shortage, fling that the urban need for wa ter is as pressing as the rural need. Some of that imported water should be used to alleviate prob lems in Texas’ rapidly growing cities, he said. Council chairman Gov. Bruce King of New Mexico and other members joined Clements at the news conference. The council was created by Congress in 1976 to study the ramifications of the drying up of the huge Ogallala Aquifer, and to report back to Congress on its findings. The aquifer covers an area about the size of California and it underlies the six-state re gion. The council’s six member states are New Mexico, Texas, Oklaho ma, Kansas, Colorado and Neb raska. The one-day meeting in Santa Fe was to begin the final review process and to whittle down the voluminous reports into a compre hensive package to present to Congress. That final plan must be submitted by June 30, 1982. The Ogallala Aquifer is vitally important to U.S. agricultural production, and its water present ly irrigates about 13.2 million acres of rich cropland in the six- state region. Indeed, food grains produced with Ogallala water are the major source of this nation’s balance of payments for foreign energy, A. L. Black, chairman of the Texas Wa ter Development Board, told the council. exas chief justice says V and courts don’t mix But the once-full aquifer is drying up, and unless supplemen tal water can be brought into the area, more than 6 million acres currently being irrigated will by 2020 be converted to the less pro ductive dryland farming or aban doned, the council was told. In creating the council. Con gress directed it to study the im portation of water from within its region or adjacent states. The U.S. Army Corps of En gineers presented four separate proposals that would bring excess water from east of the six-state re gion to the high plains area. That supplemental water would pro vide up to 8.7 million acre feet of water a year, depending on which proposal was selected. The council has not endorsed any of the proposals to date, which would use water from either the Missouri or Arkansas rivers, with additional water coming from smaller rivers. Bill Pearson, of the Corps Southwestern Division, said the four plans would range in cost from $3.57 billion to $20.64 bil lion, based on the value of the dol lar in 1977. And the cost of bringing the wa ter to the region, excluding the cost of delivering it to farmers in the region, would range from $226 to $569 per acre foot, Pearson said. The four proposals would also range in water transport distance from 377 to 863 miles, depending on which one is selected, he said. A study on the economics of va rious proposals for the Ogallala area, by the Arthur D. Little Co. of Cambridge, Mass., was also presented to tbe council. That study reviewed four sepa rate management concepts: con tinuing to operate without any further programs, urging volun tary conservation methods, re stricting groundwater use, and importing supplemental water. Of the four plans, importing wa ter would boost the agricultural production more and provide a greater economic base than any other plan, the council was told. United Press International del ElliotB^USTIN — The highest court Hge in Texas agrees with state Bges who voted that cameras , jloukl not be allowed in the cour- • Jiom, saying that from his limited tmsell,Berience he’s found the electro- nie media biased and rude. Texas Supreme Court Chief ■slice Joe R. Greenhill said ■ednesday he felt a major factor ■ the recent vote by judges was le behavior of television camer- lien. ciiuijlTtneeds to be said that without imedi* en ding to have a negative affect )k effectl balloting, the local TV mjjjjlwsinan did not help matters,” said B een b>H said of coverage of the rol judges convention in Corpus Cl ■ ■ Greenhill said he was seated in radii, ft, font row of the conference idden Jomand that shortly after he was hased (Bated, several television crews ouldwlt up tripods in front of him and lin i : pother judge, obscuring tbeir titionapev,, 3 pricBB'Tky were out in force and it las Pi Lis all done with lights and with- • in b Uitregard to whose lap they sat in, lat .1 984,1 A soul tion conuin lunseloj it M including mine,” Greenhill said. Greenhill also said most of the journalists stayed only for the por tion of the program presenting the pro side of the issue and left before the negative side was presented. “Some of the judges who we ren’t so fired up by the idea in the first place said, ’Now is this the way they are going to cover our trials.’” Judges attending the confer ence last weekend were asked to mark a four-answer ballot describ ing their feelings about allowing cameras in the courts. Of those responding, 137 said they “adamantly opposed” the rule change and 45 indicated less fervent opposition. Only 30 judges said they were not opposed and only six said they favored the proposal. In light of the vote, the Sup reme Court, which issues rules on courtroom procedure, announced it would not change its rules to allow the cameras in. The decision by the nine justices was unani mous, Greenhill said. Greenhill said the program in Corpus Christi on allowing camer as was organized to give the judges an objective look at both sides of the issue. “I’m not sure the trial judges wanted to have this individual say so over whether there would be TV cameras in their courtrooms,” Greenhill said. “You all (the press) can put on a great deal of pressure, whether you know it or not. It takes a great deal of courage for a judge to tell them to get out.” Austin attorney Roy Minton, who addressed the conference on the negative aspects of the propos al, said he thought witnesses be haved differently when on camera. Greenhill said he thought many of the judges felt the same way, including himself. Despite the obvious opposition by the judges, the Supreme Court could have altered the canons to allow cameras in courts on a trial basis. However, Greenhill said that option was dismissed and that the question probably would not be considered again for several years. 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