T. Boone Pickens Buys Water Rights For Nearly $100 Million...
@peaceful (3294)
United States
July 8, 2008 8:38am CST
Hey Texas, watch out!
Do you get chills at the thought of fresh water becoming a privatized commodity?
If T. Boone Pickens make a profit on this outlandish deal:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/24410-t-boone-pickens-invests-in-water-should-you
- There just might be another change coming that will affect our lives and pocketbooks.
This dude is buying land and water rights to build a pipeline across the desert from the Ogallala Reservoir, and charge to punp his water to cities such as El Paso, Dallas and San Antonio. He is betting on a severe drought, climate change and other environmental factors to earn him about one billion more dollars over the next 30 years.
Now, Mr Pickens is already worth close to 3 Billion bucks, and he is 78 years old...
The fragile desert's ecosystem and the life span of this very important aquifer will be subject to pipeline construction, and other needless stresses, In my own view, for the fattening wallet of an already wealthy man.
If he profits from this ploy, the scramble of speculators will become a stampede, and the results could be nightmarish.
Several bigtime corporations have tried to privatise fresh water rights in other countries.
So what's next?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@cheryl63 (1)
• United States
8 Jul 08
What a greedy son of a biscuit eater. Another case of cashing in on someone else's misfortune. We already pay for water through our local utility company. By all means let's increase the price of a true necessity to make an unnecessary profit.
And when utility companies don't want to pay his outrageous water prices what then? Shut off all the water to an area and let people die for sake of a profit. And the prices will be outrageous. The area around San Antonio is Bedrock for gods sake and he wants to lay a pipeline. A costly procedure WE will pay for. He's too greedy not to pass the costs on to all of us.
1 person likes this
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
9 Jul 08
Great to see you here, Cheryl! :)
I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this guy has more than enough money to do many, many good things for a lot of people...
What is his deal?
Even putting the mere thought out that there is money to be made from such a ploy, is a dangerously tempting thing for many Uber- Speculators that have lost big bucks in the market decline...
The prospect of a "Gold Rush" syndrome involving fresh water is totally scary.
@GardenGerty (157546)
• United States
8 Jul 08
The air we breathe, perhaps? Or scenic views? I hope this does not come to pass. In seeking money, we are traitors to basic survival of all.
1 person likes this
@peaceful (3294)
• United States
8 Jul 08
You are right, GG, as usual...
Our unawareness about these 'Little stories" can add up to some serious consquences for the future of our Species.
Cities are already leasing Public Property to foreign investors for big bucks. I think that it's really going to get out of hand.
@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
18 Jul 08
My thoughts on this are that someone should figure out how to take water from flooded areas and get it to areas of drought. Yes it will be a big undertaking and will involve filtering the water but it could be a doable thing. Also I have thought about floating icebergs down to large cities and covering them so that they do not melt too fast but taking the melt water for drinking water. This would help areas like California that are using water from a dried up river or nearly so. There are enough ice bergs to keep many cities in good water. I think that this would be a better solution than taking from an already arid region.
1 person likes this
