Texas Could Face a Grave Water Crisis

[JAM]

The Rule of Capture' could make a few big landowners extremely wealthy at the expense of every body else.

June 28, 2010

Water and where to get it has been an obsession ever since humans arrived in the American West. People have searched, begged, lied, stolen, cheated, killed and been killed for it. Land has been seized, plundered and rendered useless because of it. Riverbeds, lakes and communities have been drained and abused and trivialized into detritus, remnants left behind in the pursuit of progress.

The process is still playing out, nowhere as dramatically as in Texas, where 21st century water wars are breaking out across the state.

http://www.alternet.org/water/147359...ttle_known_law

[JAM]

This should be pretty a interesting program :

• Video Link

[JAM]

Bill West, who heads the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, wants to engineer a deal that would send more than 71 million gallons of water a day to San Antonio through a network of pipelines, according to a Sept. 21 letter obtained by the Statesman. The river authority and its water supply partners would have to put together a preliminary agreement by Oct. 22 to meet a San Antonio call for water. That amount is roughly equivalent to the amount used on a daily basis by 225,000 average Austin homes.

The letter from West is addressed to Frankie Limmer, the former Williamson County commissioner whose company, End-Op , has been trying to get permission to pump water from beneath Bastrop and Lee counties; Terry Gilmore, a developer supplying the money behind Sustainable Water Resources , an End-Op competitor; Ross Cummings, who heads Blue Water Systems , which has won the right to pump from Milam and Burleson counties; and Lourcey Sams, director of marketing of the Brazos Valley Water Alliance , a coalition of landowners with water rights in Milam, Robertson, Burleson and Brazos counties.

In effect, they are competitors aiming to corner the water-rich underground reserves around the Simsboro formation of the vast Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which stretches beneath the counties east and northeast of Austin. Under the river authority's plan, they would lay down their differences to make money collectively supplying water to the San Marcos area and San Antonio.

For its part, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, which serves Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, Lockhart and Luling and is itself short on water, hopes to step into the role that the more powerful Lower Colorado River Authority abandoned last year, when it pulled out of a multibillion-dollar water-sharing project with the San Antonio Water System, citing water demands in its own basin.

San Antonio has long looked for an alternative source of water to the Edwards Aquifer, but, one after another, proposed water projects have fallen flat, ratcheting up political pressure on the public water utility to find one that works. This month, San Antonio sent out a solicitation seeking 26 billion gallons of water per year, starting with 6.5 billion gallons by 2020.

....
For its part, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, which serves Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, Lockhart and Luling and is itself short on water, hopes to step into the role that the more powerful Lower Colorado River Authority abandoned last year, when it pulled out of a multibillion-dollar water-sharing project with the San Antonio Water System, citing water demands in its own basin.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...es-945677.html

No problem now, but man just a year ago the lake was bone dry and everyone was sweating bullets around the Austin area on where we were going to get water.

There is a city in California that won't allow new residents, due to lack of water resources. Do you think we are headed that way?

[JAM]

http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/

Here is a pretty good movie worth watching. Streams available at Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. There's a bit of political propaganda in it, but for the most part, its pretty good and gets you thinking. Definitely worth a 90 minute view.

[JAM]

Travis County commissioners unanimously approved a one-year ban Tuesday on nearly all new development in western parts of the county that would rely on water from the Trinity Aquifer.

The county has received complaints of wells that draw from the Trinity running dry.

...

Some affected property owners were unhappy about the county's decision. Ted Stewart , who owns land near Hamilton Pool Road, said the commissioners chose to infringe on the property rights of rural Travis County residents to appease "mostly downtown metrosexuals or people (already) living on beautiful, 5-acre subdivided properties in the Hill Country."

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...ty-981635.html

[JAM]

Without adjustments, agency says it may not have surplus water to sell to new customers in 20 years.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...es-983719.html

[JAM]

Rising water bills in Kennedy Ridge a mystery

When water service finally reached all of Kennedy Ridge Estates, residents celebrated and Travis County officials took credit for improving the hardscrabble community, which for years had languished in the shadow of its wealthy neighbor Austin.

But five years later, residents' water rates have spiked to more than five times those in Austin. Households with few means, some with incomes of less than $1,000 a month, are struggling to pay water bills approaching $200 or more. Unsure about where they should send their payments, some residents say their water was shut off nearly three weeks ago, and at least three households are still without water.

http://www.statesman.com/news/states...ry-885385.html


Kennedy Ridge Estates resident Jose Almendariz, whose service has been shut off for two weeks, fills up two 32-gallon trash cans with water from his cousin's house nearby. The two containers will last his family of six about one day.

[JAM]

LUBBOCK, Texas — The amount of land in exceptional drought in Texas is the most in the 11 years forecasters have tracked the data, a weather official said Thursday.

The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday shows more than a fourth of the state, 25.96 percent, is now in the most severe drought category. Exceptional drought means extraordinary and widespread crop and pasture losses, and shortages of water in reservoirs.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/...y-1456450.html

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

[BevoLJ]

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...ess+Journal%29

EPA names Austin model city for water protection
Austin Business Journal
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2011, 9:14am CDT

The Environmental Protection Agency picked Austin as one of 10 model cities for green infrastructure.

The federal agency is making the proclamation this morning as part of efforts to inspire environmentally-sensitive building nationwide.

Officials specifically lauded the city's recent Lundelius-McDaniels Water Quality Pond project. The facility uses green technologies to protect the water quality of storm water that feeds into the Edwards Aquifer, Barton Springs and the drinking water wells in Sunset Valley.

....

[KevinFromTexas]

Llano is in bad shape. The Llano River is almost completely dry and it's the main source of water for the town. They said on the news yesterday that Llano could run out of water in less than 2 months. At that point they would have to buy some, probably from the LCRA, and truck it in.

In other news, the Austin Colony neighborhood southeast of Austin is having water quality issues. The water there is cloudy. People wash their dishes and have streaks left on them. Their water filters turn brown in a week and some people have resorted to buying $5,000 water purifiers to clean their household's water supply.

[JAM]

By AMERICAN STATESMAN-STAFF | Thursday, June 16, 2011, 09:35 AM

According to announcement by the City of Georgetown:

If you go to Blue Hole Park on most hot summer days, you’ll see people leaping off limestone cliffs into the water below—at least until now.

The drought has dried up the South Fork of the San Gabriel River, which means that the water level in the pool behind the Imhoff Dam at Blue Hole is continuing to go down. Even in years with high water levels, the uneven surface of the river bottom and hidden underwater objects such as rocks and logs pose dangers to cliff jumpers. Several injuries and fatalities have occurred over the years as a result of people jumping off the cliffs at Blue Hole.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...ss_to_blu.html

[JAM]

Oil companies that need water for "fracking" wells compete for H2O

Bruce Frasier sweats in the 106F heat at his Carrizo Springs, Tex., farm while stacking 42-pound boxes of cantaloupes bound for Kroger (KR) supermarkets and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT). But he's turning away all offers for his most prized commodity: water. Texas's worst drought since record-keeping began in 1895 is fueling a rally in water prices as energy prospectors from ExxonMobil (XOM) to Korea National Oil expand the use of a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that uses up to 13 million gallons in a single well.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4028472314.htm

[JAM]

SMITH POINT — Tracy Woody heaved a hemp bag filled with oysters across the deck of his boat and began inspecting his catch. One shell after another was empty.

It's virtually official, Woody said: The third-worst drought in state history has killed any hope that Texas oysters would make up for the severe losses in Mississippi and Louisiana, where the shellfish suffered from last year's oil spill and this year's massive flooding.

"There's no way," said Woody, a fifth-generation oyster fisherman who said he has never seen conditions this bad.

Oysters are a $217 million industry on the Gulf Coast. Louisiana and Texas account for 70 percent of the eastern species found in the Gulf and along the East Coast. Pessimism about the harvest this season is growing, even though experts won't offer a specific projection.

This year, the drought has made the water in Galveston Bay, where most of the state's oysters are harvested, so salty that predators and disease are thriving. The deadly "dermo" parasite has been found in two reefs where it's never been seen before.

Combined with the losses in the southeastern states, consumers may be hard-pressed to find Gulf Coast oysters this year.

"There's not going to be enough oysters, the price is going to go through the roof, and the consumers are not going to pay," Woody said, as workers threw hemp sacks of oysters onto wooden pallets.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/...t-1678314.html

[KevinFromTexas]

I've been collecting the condensation from our air conditioners in buckets and using the water to water our trees. I just watered our palm tree an hour ago with it.

[paulsjv]

I found this and thought of this thread. Very interesting read about Water Crisis in Texas written back in the early 90s.

http://lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard270.html

Environmentalists Clobber Texas

by Murray N. Rothbard

In April 1993, Murray Rothbard wrote on the Texas water problem, explaining how the government policy was on a disastrous course that could lead to massive drought. That day has finally arrived.

We all know how the environmentalists, seemingly determined at all costs to save the spotted owl, delivered a crippling blow to the logging industry in the North west. But this slap at the economy may be trivial compared to what might happen to the lovely city of San Antonio, Texas, endangered by the deadly and despotic combination of the environmentalist movement and the federal judiciary.

The sole source of water for the 900,000-resident city, as well as the large surrounding area, is the giant Edwards Aquifer, an underground river or lake (the question is controversial) that spans five counties. Competing for the water, along with San Antonio and the farms and ranches of the area, are two springs, the Comal and the Aquarena on the San Marcos River, which are becoming tourist attractions. In May 1991, the Sierra Club, along with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, which controls the two springs, filed a suit in federal court, invoking the Endangered Species Act. It seems that, in case of a drought, any cessation of water flow to the two springs would endanger four obscure species of vegetables or animals fed by the springs: the Texas blind salamander; Texas wild rice; and two tiny brands of fish: the fountain darter, and the San Marcos gambusia.

[MightyYoda]

I am going to admit I don't feel too bad about the San Antonio situation as everyone has begged them since I was a kid to not rely on the aquifer so much.

[paulsjv]

Originally Posted by MightyYoda

I am going to admit I don't feel too bad about the San Antonio situation as everyone has begged them since I was a kid to not rely on the aquifer so much.

What I found interesting in the article is how he suggests that privatizing the water and getting the government out of it would actually regulate the water better than having the government regulate it.

[Dom"n"Converse]

Well, some of that has changed from the 90's; but it's not really easy when environmentalists sue the city over everything that it plans. I.e. the Applewhite and Cibolo reservoirs and potentially damming the Medina river up to the San Antonio River Confluence and even trying to buy water rights from Canyon Lake. (For anyone wondering about why we don't use Canyon water http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/canyon.html )

[The ATX]

This is really sad...




Article LInk:
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...-business.html

[JAM]

http://photoblog.statesman.com/dry-s...rought-of-2011