The Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer is an

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States. The aquifer supplies water to about 12 million homes in East Texas. The aquifer's water quality is claimed to be at risk from leaks and spills from the

Keystone XL The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...

tar sands pipeline by extremist environmental organizations. In 2012, the Tar Sands Blockade mounted a campaign of peaceful and sustained

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

justified by the groups claim that they are protecting the water quality of the aquifer by stopping the pipeline.

References

Aquifers in the United States Geology of Texas {{Water-stub