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High demand for
bottled water sends developers looking
for it in rural communities where everyone
depends on underground wells. As one
citizen puts it: “guy puts a pipe in the
ground and makes a lot ‘a money suckin’ the water out from under you.
You lose
your well water AND you go broke tryin’ to make him stop.”
"Water Wars" are being waged all across rural
America. Fights, lawsuits and
challenges to
the law of the land have erupted around a simple question: "who
owns the
water?" Locals want to drink it, feed their livestock and
water their
crops. Developers want to pump it out and haul it away to a thirsty
urban market.
| “I've
heard that if you go seven days without water, you're dead. If
we ruin our water,
whatta we got? We got nothin’… we can’t live.” |
Don
Owens
Rancher -
Palestine, Texas
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“The
issue is simple…
should the people with the biggest pump and the biggest hole in the
ground win…
and be able to suck their neighbor’s well water, the very essence of
life,
dry.”
|
Dick Swift
State Representative -
East Texas
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