Water We Gonna Do Now? (Or..Welcome to year 8 of drought...)

[Reddy]

I hope those of you in the NW USA saved some of last year's water...

I wish we could too. We had a pretty bad drought back in the 70's and I expect another one soon. Unfortunately, we get about 7" of water per year here. We're almost through our "wet" season and haven't gotten any appreciable precip in two months. I think were at less than 10% or normal (ok, we're only short a couple of inches).

Reddy

 

[AndyH]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/jan-june12/texaswater_03-20.html

We have already given permission for more water to be withdrawn from many of our rivers than is actually in them today...

...Because we do not have the water to fight another fire season like we had last summer...

“We’re still on a limited basis, 50 gallons a day is all we’re allowed per household,” said longtime resident Cathy Mull.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqh5tbE3GGk[/youtube]

HOUSTON — Agriculture officials say losses from Texas’ historic drought are more than $2 billion more than previously thought.

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service now estimates crop and livestock losses at $7.62 billion for 2011. The extension service’s preliminary estimate of $5.2 billion in August already topped the previous record of $4.1 billion in 2006.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/texas-drought-2011_n_1371907.html?ref=climate-change

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

latest Government Intel Report states Water is the biggest threat to our future in record setting droughts and record setting floods. iow, too much, too little.

i guess what we need to do is get a much better water management plan. that water pipeline built is interesting. just wondering why we could not do that to divert water from flood prone areas to drought prone areas?

but then again, that could create a political fire in itself

 

[AndyH]

http://www.nrdc.org/water/readiness/

 

[kubel]

http://www.nrdc.org/water/readiness/]

Sad that a state composed of two freshwater peninsulas with over 11,000 named inland lakes and over 300 named rivers is rated the same as a state that is completely landlocked. I think it's because we have a poor rating when it comes to protecting our source water.

 

[AndyH]

And the fun continues! San Antonio continues in stage 2 water restrictions from last year's drought. The city has never been in stage 3.

City planners expect stage 3 in May, with stage 4 in July or August.

This month, the water authority created and published guidelines for stage 5.

http://www.tpr.org/post/source-stage-3-drought-restrictions-just-around-corner
http://tpr.org/post/aquifer-authority-creates-stage-5-pumping-restrictions

 

[AndyH]

http://climatecrocks.com/2013/03/27...uel-or-you-can-have-water-your-choice-part-1/

Almost half the surface water withdrawn in the US is for power plant cooling.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myg-cmFacmQ[/youtube]


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVvedyw2m6U[/youtube]

 

[AndyH]

Welcome to year eight of the southern plains/SW drought.

2014:

http://www.weather.com/news/news/record-low-texas-lakes-drought-worsens-20140315

Levels at three Texas lakes have plunged to record lows, the latest chapter of a multi-year southern Plains drought.

According to a drought update issued Friday by the National Weather Service in Ft. Worth, Texas, Lakes Granbury, Nocona, and Ray Hubbard each plummeted to new record lows since dams creating those lakes were completed in the 1960s.

In total, Texas reservoirs have lost 240 billion gallons of water over the past 12 months.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, a swath of central Texas, as well as parts of central and northeast Oklahoma, southern New Mexico and southern Arizona, had their driest January-February on record in 2014.

march, 2015 drought update...
http://www.lcra.org/water/water-sup...hland-Lakes-Combined-Storage-Gauge-030615.pdf

The Central Texas region is in the eighth year of a severe drought.
Preliminary 2014 data shows this drought has surpassed the historic
drought from 1947-1957 and has affected LCRA’s water inventory
— or how much water LCRA can reliably supply through a repeat
of the driest conditions on record.

 

[MikeD]

I'm in the process of converting all my 3.5 gpf (gal/flush) (1955 American Standard?) toilets to "dual flush" using HydroClean (inlet valve replacement) and HydroRight (flush valve replacement) products (also available together as HydroKit, although the HydroClean part lacks a tank sediment reducing part that comes with the standalone HydroClean product). I had previously installed one HydroClean some years ago from Ace Hardware (it first came to market in 2006), but at that time the HydroRight was not yet available and it has only been recently that I became aware of it when I needed to replace that toilet's flush (a.k.a. flapper) valve. Both are needed to effectively reduce water use. The HydroRight is the primary component in water reduction, but the HydroClean allows the filling w/o water waste of the bowel to the necessary level, which is important for proper HydroRight functioning.

There are several adjustments involved between the two products to minimize water use, and I expect to tweak them further (so I'm not ready to estimate the water saved just yet), but I can say that currently the "light flush" drops the tank level about 2.25 inches versus ~7 inches for a "full flush". And most of the time only the former is needed -- and only once.

 

[AndyH]

Yay El Nino - thanks for the water. The Highland Lakes are full. Medina lake is 63% full. The Edwards Aquifer is in fine shape.

It only cost us lives (21 plus) and dollars in the Memorial Day floods of 2015, lives and dollars from Mexico to Oklahoma as floods and tornadoes left states of emergency in their wakes, smaller flash floods in San Antonio and the Hill Country through the year, and now the 500 year record floods bringing Houston to a standstill.

Though the cattle industry and farmers still haven't recovered from the 8 years of drought, we're ok for water at the moment...