Editing Andrews County, Texas (section)

==Geography==
According to the [[U.S. Census Bureau]], the county has an area of {{convert|1501|sqmi}}, of which essentially all is land although {{convert|0.4|sqmi}} (0.02%) are water.<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=http://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/counties_list_48.txt|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=April 18, 2015|date=August 22, 2012|title=2010 Census Gazetteer Files}}</ref> The county contains many [[playa lake]]s, the two largest being Baird lake and Shafter Lake.

In the west part of Andrews County on the border with New Mexico (see the state border issue below), a private company, [[Waste Control Specialists]] (WCS), formerly owned by the late [[Harold Simmons]] and headquartered in [[Dallas, Texas]], operates a {{convert|14,000|acre|km2}} site. The company was awarded a license to dispose of [[radioactive waste]] by the [[TCEQ]] in 2009. The permit allows for disposal of radioactive materials such as uranium, plutonium and thorium from commercial power plants, academic institutions and medical schools.<ref name="nuclear waste">{{cite web| url = https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-site-begins-taking-federal-nuclear-waste-19343196#.UblWMfk3vg0| title = Reference at abcnews.go.com| website = [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]}}</ref>  The company finished construction on the project in 2011 and began disposing of waste in 2012. There are two radioactive waste landfills at the site. The 30-acre compact site is owned and regulated by the State of Texas for use by Texas, Vermont, and up to 36 other states. The 90-acre federal site is owned by the United States federal government and is used for Department of Energy and other federal waste.<ref name="nuclear waste" /> The company employs 130 people or about 1% of the total labor force in Andrews and Andrews County.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.andrewsedc.com/profiles.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 13, 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810201125/http://andrewsedc.com/profiles.pdf |archive-date=August 10, 2013 }}</ref>

For years, there has been a simmering dispute over which state these waste sites are lawfully a part of: Texas or New Mexico?  The straight north–south border between the two states was originally defined as the 103rd meridian, but the 1859 survey that was supposed to mark that boundary mistakenly set the border between 2.29 and 3.77 miles too far west of that line, making the [[Waste Control Specialists]] waste sites, which are west of the 103rd meridian, along with the current towns of [[Farwell, Texas|Farwell]], [[Texline, Texas|Texline]], and [[Glenrio, Texas|part of Glenrio]], appear to be within the [[State of Texas]]. New Mexico's short border with Oklahoma, in contrast, was surveyed on the correct meridian. New Mexico's draft constitution in 1910 stated that the border is on the 103rd meridian as intended. The disputed strip, hundreds of miles long, includes parts of valuable [[oilfields]] of the [[Permian Basin (North America)|Permian Basin]]. A bill was passed in the [[New Mexico Senate]] to fund and file a lawsuit in the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] to recover the strip from Texas, but the bill did not become law. Today, land in the strip is included in Texas land surveys and the waste sites for all purposes are taxed and governed by Andrews County and [[The State of Texas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/1357432.html|title=Border War Brewing?|author=Daniel Gertson|access-date=September 24, 2016|archive-date=April 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418162341/http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/1357432.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Major highways===
* {{jct|state=TX|US|385|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|TX|115|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|TX|176|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|Loop|1910|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|FM|181|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|FM|1218|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|FM|1967|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|FM|1788|name1=}}
* {{jct|state=TX|FM|2371|name1=}}

===Adjacent counties===
* [[Gaines County, Texas|Gaines County]] (north)
* [[Martin County, Texas|Martin County]] (east)
* [[Midland County, Texas|Midland County]] (southeast)
* [[Ector County, Texas|Ector County]] (south)
* [[Winkler County, Texas|Winkler County]] (southwest)
* [[Lea County, New Mexico]] (west/[[Mountain Time Zone]])