Hey Chris - I used to work near you, at Deepwater Power Plant on the channel. Back in the early 70s, everybody on the channel was dealing with subsidance. A lot of the place had gone below sea-level. They were just installing a huge surface water line from Lake Houston (I think that was the right lake) down to Galveston. There was a big push to get all of the industries to convert to surface water and use the line. There was a lot of grumbling that the biggest water consumers weren't industry but the rice farmers.
There are (or there were when I was growing up) a lot of rice farms SW of Houston. Has anybody ever been water skiing on a rice farm? All you need is skis, a rope, and a pickup truck.
-david