Last night, Scott Friedman did a story on NBC Channel 5 about the people in Dallas who use the most water. Ross Perot got a finger wagged at him for using 4.8 million gallons last year. Tom Hicks got the same treatment for using 8.7 million gallons. Friedman began his story by saying, “Some of the wealthiest people in Dallas are swimming in more than just money. They’re also consuming water at a rate that’s 40 to 90 times greater than the typical Dallas household.”
Okay, sure, that’s a lot of water. But how about some context? For this story to make sense, you’ve got to break it down on a per-acre basis. Tom Hicks’s estate includes about 25 acres. That means he uses about 348,000 gallons per acre per year. Is that ridiculously high? I don’t know. Point is, if you’ve got a big house and you’ve got a lot of land, you’re going to use a lot of water.
I’m going to turn comments on, because I bet there’s a FrontBurnervian out there who knows how much water an average Dallas resident uses per acre.
