MIDLAND, Texas — The city of Midland has agreed to a new water deal with Fort Stockton Holdings that includes the cities of San Angelo and Abilene. The deal has been in the making for 10 years and will last several generations.
"About 10 years ago the city of Midland formed a small coalition with the cities of Abilene and San Angelo. It’s called West Texas Water Partnerships. The three cities: Midland, Abilene, and San Angelo got together and basically decided, hey, we need to find additional regional sources of water," Midland City Councilman Spencer Robnett said.
10 years ago, Midland was close to running out of water due to a severe drought. This new agreement was created to prevent that situation from playing out again in the future.
"If you think back to 2010, the city of Midland almost ran out of water. The only reason we did not run out of water is because city council in the 1960s had secured water rights in Winkler County to the T-BAR field," Robnett said.
According to this agreement, Fort Stockton Holdings will supply 28,400 acre-foot per year. Midland will receive 15,000 acre-foot per year while Abilene will receive 8,400 acre-foot per year and San Angelo will receive 5,000 acre-foot per year.
"It was really a great partnership. I think those numbers just boil down to what each city projected that they may or may not need in the future," Robnett said.
While the deal was agreed upon today by the Midland City Council, the actual infrastructure project will not begin for several years.
"We're at least five years, probably closer to 10 years out from the city of Midland taking action on developing this groundwater resource, but we'll start the planning process. We’ve already started the planning process," Robnett said.
Rent payers in Midland are not expected to see a bill for this project initially. That will not come until the city issues the bonds, and there is no current number on what that will cost at the moment.