Posted on 12/22/2011 12:43:40 PM PST by wolfcreek
The region's worst-case drought scenario might not be dire enough, researchers warn in a report released today.
Over the past 500 years, Central Texas has seen droughts far worse than the 1950s drought of record, according to a report commissioned by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and published Wednesday in the December issue of the Texas Water Journal. Researchers warn that makers of water policy should broaden their planning to factor in the possibility of droughts far worse than the spell that set the bar more than a half-century ago.
"The drought of record was no aberration," researcher and authority Executive Manager Todd Votteler said. He and the study's other authors analyzed data from samples taken from Central Texas trees and other historical factors. "The tree-ring record showed that there were droughts that were more severe and lasted longer. And there's a real policy question that comes up of to what extent do we need to prepare for those droughts, if at all?"
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Some want it to stop raining so they can have their holiday plans uninterupted.
I'm of the mindset of continued prayer and never talking badly of our most precious resource.
CONSERVative
Indeed. It can definitely keep raining.
Thanks wolf. Lake Travis is about 1/3 of full capacity now. We try to conserve as much as possible.
Instead of Texas spending $6 billion on wind power that ain’t happening we could have built natural gas power plants with reliable output and spent the other half on desalination plants along the coast.
We need Rain.
We aren’t near close enough.
The Guadalupe ( Canyon Lake) is still not full enough and most of the stock tanks are still very dry.
Slow soaking rain.
and we need to take this seriously.
So many things we depend on are dependant on rain,
Beef, maize (cattle food),cotton,wheat,lumber and I could go on.
Out here in west Texas, they are making noises about NO watering anything next year if this persists. We have big trees that we could lose....lots of people have already.
Since the cycle of Great Droughts in North America follows a pattern similar to that of China, it only makes sense to build a canal to connect the rivers of the Northern Plains with the rivers of the Southern Plains.
NOTE: You usually don't have a Great Drought in the East, West, South and North simultaneously. They move around from area to area.
Instead somebody wasted all the money on windmills.
They claim Texas has lost about 10% of it’s trees (upwards of 500 million)
This does not include the ones lost to fire. [the Bastrop fire alone destroyed 1.5 million]
Billions on windmills and power lines that guarantee us blackouts next summer.
Edwards Acquifer is running pretty dry, how often does that happen?
Here we are wasting money on boondoggles like wind power (we will have less power when we need it because of this) when we could have been addressing real problems.
There were some cities in our area that did not allow watering much either. Most were at the once a week schedule. There are a lot of dead cedar trees in our area.
The Edwards is low at two of the wells they check the one in New Braunfels and the one in San Marcos.
I don’t know if they really know how big the Edwards is. or how deep it is.
That being said we still need to be smart with water this is Texas and only God knows when the drought will be over.
There is NO SUCH THING as a shortage of water. There is only water that costs more than the legacy uses can justify.
Since the oceans have not dried up, we have an unlimited amount of sea water that can be desalinated and then piped or hauled to where it is needed. However, people may not be able to afford to buy it and will have to move to where water is less expensive. But please don’t fall for this “shortage” nonsense.
Dead Cedar trees are a good thing
Cedar trees are water hawgs
that is why the “cedar choppers” are always trying to clear them out in the hill country.
Those German settlers knew they drank too much water and didn’t provide much of anything but fence posts.
I think Horseshoe Bay is planning to cut every cedar under a 6” diameter and all multiple stemmed cedars in the city.
One ranch about 5 or 6 miles NW of us cut ever cedar on a 700 - 800 acre area. Springs that had not run in years came back.
The issue would be having desalination plants on-line and the necessary pipes to transport the water where it is needed.
Texas (IIRC) doesn’t have one for public use.
And the Goldencheeked Worbler can go eat the Barton Creek Salamander for all I care!
The cedar choppers know how to make a ranch work.
Just deepen the existing reservoir's and let them fill naturally would be cheaper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.