ECONOMICS OF WATER SOURCES 325 
way of damming up the ocean. This means resorting to a pipeline, 
pumping against a head of water every foot of the way. This is 
much more costly, running $3 to 7 per acre-foot mile. Thus the 
s0-mile haul would cost $150 to 350 per acre-foot. 
The magnitude of these figures may surprise some who have 
been talking only of water production costs. I hope that it will 
stimulate some serious engineering study of water transportation 
costs Over various typical distances and types of terrain. 
4. Markets, the economist’s fourth question. Is there a market 
of sufficient magnitude for converted water? As we have just seen, 
since the ratio of value to transportation cost is low, the marketing 
area for water is limited to the vicinity of the production area. 
Pilot studies have been made in certain water-deficient areas, such 
as California and Texas 50 miles from the sea and under 500 feet 
elevation, showing that an additional 11,000,000 acre-feet could 
be consumed and 10,000,000 of present consumption displaced. At 
$40 per acre-foot, that is an $800,000,000 business. Only two chem- 
ical companies and only thirty manufacturing companies have 
larger sales. There is most certainly a market, but the exact extent 
and location of it will depend on precise market research to deter- 
mine how much water will be used where at successively lower 
selling prices. 
§. Soctal and Economic Magnitude, the economist’s fifth ques- 
tion. How seriously would it affect the present economy? Answer: 
Staggeringly. Consider now the world’s largest chemical plant—it 
produces 3000 tons per day of product. In the year 2000, one area, 
southern Texas, will be able to utilize 12.3 million acre-feet of 
water. How many water conversion plants will it take to convert 
this water? 10? 100? 1000? No. It will take 15,000 plants the size 
of the world’s largest. One plant every 150 feet from the Sabine to 
the Rio Grande; wall to wall for 450 miles. Twelve million 
acre-feet is in tonnage about 4o times the entire nation’s petroleum 
production and about 400 times the chemical production. 
6. Value, the economist’s sixth and last question and the philos- 
opher’s first. Assessing the value of water is a treacherous under- 
taking. The smaller the group assessed the more likely the error 
and the more certain the chance for differing opinions. Very few 
