NEWS & INFORMATION
Protecting the Dark West Texas Skies
McDonald Observatory has partnered with oil and gas organizations to protect the dark West Texas skies. This video details the issue of light pollution caused by oil and gas activities in the Permian Basin and their potential to effect the observatory's ability to study the cosmos.
The video also outlines solutions that are documented in an agreement for Recommended Lighting Practices for oilfield activity that has been published by the partnership of McDonald, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and the Texas Oil and Gas Association. This project was made possible by a grant from Apache Corporation.
A Tourist Town Reckons With An Energy Boom
For generations, Texans have visited the desert oasis of San Solomon Springs for recreation, refreshment and rejuvenation. And for almost as long, the springs have powered the economy of the tiny town that sits next to them; Balmorhea. But now, an expanding industry is bringing big change to Balmorhea.
New Demand, Same Old Story: West Texans And Their Water
In arid West Texas, where rain is infrequent and rivers and lakes are few, groundwater – water from sources beneath the surface of the earth – is key to survival. And as the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin demands more of this resource from the surrounding area, researchers are scrambling to study the systems of webbed aquifers that feed households, farms, ranches and industry in the region.
But for residents there’s a familiar tension over who gets to decide the fate of their water.
Untapped: The New West Texas
The Permian Basin in West Texas leads the nation in oil and gas production. Midland and Odessa have long been the heart of this industrialized desert. But oil and gas development is expanding outward. In the past year, drilling operations have moved south and west into a region long written off as undevelopable.
When Staying in the Dark is the Brightest Idea
PBPA gets behind an idea that is out of this world: the Dark Skies Initiative. Acting before drilling operations pose a serious problem in Reeves County and Jeff Davis County (and the Fort Davis area), oil companies get on board a plan to keep the skies dark above the McDonald Observatory.
Oil Field Flares and Lights Creeping Closer to the Famed McDonald Observatory
The University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains in West Texas is one of the darkest spots in the continental United States. Lights from the Permian Basin oilfield to the north, the center of U.S. oil and gas activity, are creeping closer to the 85-year-old observatory, home to one of the world’s largest optical instruments. The sate’s oil and gas regulator issued nearly 11,000 drilling permits in the Permian Basin in 2014.