{"id":37832,"date":"2014-07-11T10:03:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T15:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=37832"},"modified":"2014-07-11T10:03:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T15:03:16","slug":"marfa-residents-protest-city-water-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/07\/11\/marfa-residents-protest-city-water-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Marfa Residents Protest City Water Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trucks<\/a>

(Sara Melancon\/KRTS)<\/p>

Trucks wait to be filled with water purchased from the City of Marfa<\/p><\/div>\n

From Marfa Public Radio:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

With reports of drilling activity approaching the Big Bend region, some residents of Marfa are concerned about the city\u2019s practice of selling its water supply in bulk, sometimes to drilling companies.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, protesters parked and left their cars in front of city fire hydrants, hoping to block trucks from accessing the water supply.<\/p>\n

Marfa resident Buck Johnston spearheaded the effort. She feels it\u2019s a short-sighted move to sell city water in bulk, especially in a drought-stricken desert region.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk any rancher, and they\u2019ll tell you their wells are dropping and going dry,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t really care what anyone\u2019s feelings are about fracking or oil exploration, my concern is water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marfa City Manager Jim Mustard says that bulk water sales are common in cities, and he considers it a \u201cgood use\u201d of the resource.<\/p>\n

According to Mustard, the companies buying water are paying $20 per 1000 gallons of water \u2013 five times the price of what private citizens pay. He claims the city\u2019s water sales have had no adverse effects on the water table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not any lower now than it was in the 50\u2032s when we started keeping the records,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mustard maintains the protests are illegal, but as of Thursday afternoon, the city had not taken action to tow or ticket the people involved, and it seemed likely similar protests would continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Marfa Public Radio:\u00a0 With reports of drilling activity approaching the Big Bend region, some residents of Marfa are concerned about the city\u2019s practice of selling its water supply in bulk, sometimes to drilling companies. On Thursday, protesters parked and left their cars in front of city fire hydrants, hoping to block trucks from accessing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[15,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37835,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37832\/revisions\/37835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}