WASHINGTON -- T. Boone Pickens, oil tycoon and would-be water magnate, has been trying for years to build a $1.2 billion pipeline that would pump water from the Panhandle to the thirsty suburbs of Dallas. On Wednesday, he outlined the plan to a congressional subcommittee that is studying the nation's long-term water needs.

"North Texas has got serious problems by 2010," Mr. Pickens said. "We will have a buyer within one year of today."

The prediction came at a congressional hearing into the nation's long-range water needs. Mr. Pickens, head of Dallas-based Mesa Water, went out of his way to assure lawmakers that he needs no legislation to make his dream come true. After several years of effort, he's got the state and local permits he needs, he said.

All that's left is finding a customer, and a state water official who also testified Wednesday said the plan it gaining some momentum. William Mullican, deputy executive administrator at the Texas Water Development Board, said with Texas expecting to see its population nearly double by 2050, regional water planners are considering all options. "It's certainly cost-competitive with some of the other strategies," Mr. Mullican said after the hearing.

Mr. Pickens, a longtime Panhandle landowner who lives in Dallas, formed Mesa Water Inc. to market water from 150,000 acres in a four-county area, including 25,000 acres of his own in Roberts County. A year ago, after two years of haggling, Mr. Pickens won permission from Pandandle water regulators to pump the water, despite objections from some environmentalists that doing so would accelerate depletion of the huge Ogallala Aquifer.

The land is too rough to cultivate -- only about 100,000 of 2.3 million acres in the sparsely populated counties are irrigated -- and there aren't any nearby cities that need the water, including Amarillo, which has enough water rights of its own to last more than a century. Mr. Pickens characterizes the water beneath the land as "stranded".

So he's trying to sell up to 49 billion gallons a year to water suppliers in the El Paso, San Antonio and Dallas areas. He has estimated that the deal could yield him $300 million to $600 million.

One possible customer is the North Texas Municipal Water District, based in Wylie. The district supplies water to northern Dallas and Collin County cities such as Plano and McKinney -- some of the state's fastest-growing areas -- and has only about a 10-year water supply.

The district's executive assistant, Mike Rickman, said the Mesa pipeline is one of several projects under consideration. "It's on the high end of everything we've looked at. If that's the last resort, we'd probably have to go to that," he said.

Mesa is offering its water for $650 per acre-foot (enough water to cover an acre of land one foot deep, or about 326,000 gallons). Other new sources, including reservoirs, can yield water in the $300 to $550 range, which is why there haven't been any takers yet.