AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Water is one of, if not the most precious resource here in the Panhandle but a number of people living in Randall County are running out.

Is irrigation the cause of the current water shortage in rural Randall County? Irrigation goes on sometimes 24 hours-a-day for days and weeks at a time. This can happen while people right down the street say their wells have dried up completely.  

Trish Hardesty is one of those people. She says her landlord can't afford to drill another well so she has to move back to town.

"I had to come up with the money to move now and I didn' thave a choice," Hardesty said. "It's me and my daughter and grandbaby. We can't afford to be without water and I'm going almost a week now (without it)."

Bob Scott's been working with water around here his entire life and he says he's never seen anything like this. According to him, drought, firefighting and overuse are to blame.

"As a result, these wells (which) all the farmers use , they're producing between 750 and 900 galloons per minute," Scott said.

Gayle Luna lives in the same area around the Claude highway and the Washington Street area. Her water's gone from plentiful and clear to very dirty and she doesn't know where to turn next. Drilling new wells can cost thousands and she's at her wits end.

"You can drill a well and who's to say you're going to have water in a year?" Luna said. "You go home and you don't have water. We can do without a lot of things, but not without water."

Residents are not the only ones running out of the precious resource.  Randall County Judge Ernie Houdashell told Pronews 7 the Osage Fire Department just ran out of water. He explained the problem is only going to get worse.

"We have no alternative other than to drill a little deeper," Judge Houdashell said.  "We're involved in this and we're out of water at the Osage Fire Deaprtment. We're in the same area as far as people using the water. I'm not going to criticize that or say anything. It's not against the law. It would bother me personally if I did something that caused my neighbors to run out of water, but that's my personal opinion."

Pronews 7 tried contacting the owner of a large corn field on Washington, south of the Claude highway, to see what he thinks about the amount of water he uses compared to his neighbors. We were told we had the wrong number or the number wasn't working anymore.

Those same neighbors say if everyone doesn't conserve and watch out for each other, there won't be anyone left.