We want to make learning about the Pecos River easy and inspirational.

Friends of the Pecos are building a comprehensive list of resources, interesting stories, and partnering entities in this region. Let us know if you have additions to what you find here. Email.

Our primary resource is the wonderful book by Patrick Dearen, Bitter Waters, The Struggles of the Pecos River, published by OU Press in 2016. A must read—“Combining the research skills of an accomplished historian, the investigative techniques of a veteran journalist, and the engaging style of an award-winning novelist, this powerful and accessible work of environmental history may well mark a turning point in the Pecos’s fortunes.”

Land & Water

A Path Forward for the Pecos River Watershed Protection Plan
Watershed Protection Plans (WPPs) are community-developed documents that identify potential sources of waterbody impairment throughout a watershed and provide a framework for implementation strategies to reduce pollution and improve overall water quality in Texas streams and rivers” – Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Once approved, WPP’s bring Federal Clean Water Act funding to accomplish the goals set forth in the plan.

In 2021, Friends of the Pecos River commissioned a study with the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment based at Texas State University, to evaluate a “path forward.” The study concluded that for a WPP to succeed, a subsection of the river should be targeted and that community relationships needed to be deepened. A Path Forward for the Pecos Watershed Protection Plan.

Watershed Protection Plan for the Pecos River (2008)
The Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) for the Pecos River in Texas was the culmination of the Pecos River Basin Assessment Program (PRBAP). The program, initiated in September 2004, was developed to assess the Pecos River watershed and to establish baseline data for a voluntary WPP for the Pecos River watershed. Diverse groups of community members, landowners, agencies and nonprofits worked together on this plan. In 2013, the plan was not renewed for Federal funding. Read Plan>>

Realtime Streamflow Data

There are seven USGS stream gauges along the Pecos River in Texas: Orla, Pecos, Grand Falls, Girvin, Sheffield, Independence Creek and Pandale. River flow, measured in cubic feet per second (CFS), can be viewed on the USGS map viewer found here>>. Zoom in to see the Pecos River, or search “Pecos River” in the search bar. Hold your curser on the dots along the river, and a box will open to give you the most recent flow reading.

Bringing Back Comanche Springs
An Analysis of the History, Hydrogeology, Policy, and Economics by Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., P.G., Sharlene Leurig, Harry Seely, and Douglas A. Wierman, P.G. Learn more>>

Modeling Groundwater Flow to Understand the Water Resources of the Lower Pecos River Watershed (2016)
Technical resource by Ronald T. Green, Ph.D., P.G., Nathaniel Toll, F. Paul Bertetti, P.G., and Nicola Hill Geosciences and Engineering Division Southwest Research Institute Learn more>>

Water Issues Facing the Pecos Basin of Texas
Major challenges facing the Pecos Basin of Texas include salt loadings that increase the salinity of the Pecos River; the spread of non-native salt cedars that consume significant amounts of water; inefficient irrigation systems and a general lack of water that is often not sufficient to support irrigation or other uses. These problems have persisted for many years and have only been intensified by human influences. Hart • Ric Jensen • Will Hatler • Mike Mecke Learn more>>

Boehmer Lake, The Dead Sea of West Texas
Texas Monthly (Dec 2021)
“A Pecos County well has leaked noxious salt water for almost two decades. No one is taking responsibility for getting it cleaned up.”
Read Article >>

Texas Produced Water Consortium
The Texas Produced Water Consortium (TxPWC) was established on June 18, 2021 by Senate Bill 601 with the purpose of bringing together information and resources to study the economics and technologies related to beneficial uses of produced water, including environmental and public health considerations.
Learn more >>

To ease looming West Texas water shortage, oil companies have begun recycling fracking wastewater
Texas Tribune, (Dec 2022)
Oil and gas companies are increasingly reusing “produced water” as West Texas aquifers are being depleted and the practice of injecting wastewater into disposal wells triggers more earthquakes.
Read Article >>

History

Pecos River Resolution Corporation
The Pecos River Resolution Corporation (PRRC) is a nonprofit dedicated documenting the history and issues of the full length of the Pecos River, and to exploring solutions for its problems and examining its future potential. PRRC is the only organization in which Pecos River stakeholders from both New Mexico and Texas have joined together for the river’s betterment.
Learn more >>

Cattle Ranges of the Southwest (1898)
A history of the exhaustion of the pasturage and suggestions for its restoration. Learn more>>

Horsehead Crossing
Located 40 miles south/southwest of Odessa was a noted landmark on the Comanche War Trail, the U.S. Army Upper Road of 1849, the Butterfield Trail, and the Goodnight-Loving Trail. Learn more>>

Pecos County Historical Commission
Links, resources, stories of Pecos County and the Pecos River Learn more>>

Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas
The Pecos River, one of the major tributaries of the Rio Grande, rises on the western slope of the Santa Fe mountain range in Mora County, New Mexico (at 35°59' N, 105°33' W), and runs south through San Miguel, Guadalupe, De Baca, Chaves, and Eddy counties in New Mexico before it enters Texas just east of the 104th meridian.
Learn More >>