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just how sever a drought we're in right now. could very wel become the worst, most sever ever on record this summer.

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Already is... here's a little insider info... we've had nothing but trivial rainfall in a huge portion of south-central Texas since September of 2007. San Antonio has gotten more rain than the surrounding areas and it is already the driest 18 months on record... and counting. Drier here than it was in the 50's and even 1918.

Wasn't part of Perry's plan for the Trans Texas Corridor to make it easier to distribute water throughout the State?

Many battles to come in this State over water. It will affect the course of development and a lot of pocket books.

i am sure you all knew about this already, but for those few who may not have seen it.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/24410-t-boone-pickens-invests-in-water-should-you

law of the biggest pump baby.

[This message has been edited by 35chililights (edited 3/3/2009 10:29a).]

I am in the landscape business and I expect that the water for landscapes is going to be shut down soon.

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Thunder,

It was a good guess. What major were you if you dont mind me asking?

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recreation,park and tourism sciences

kind of off topic- we found some of the best fishing on Travis to be when the water was extremely low- the bass would be in surface schools all around ridge harbor marina...

Desalination! If we could just find a way to make it less expensive.

Water conservation, it ain't just for enviromenalists. If you are driving around in the summer (heck, now), look at the color of the plants you are seeing in surrounding pastures, the plants in your yard should look the same. Sorry, green lawns are typically a waste of water (I'll make and exception for buffalo).

Lake Travis was built for flood control, not to sell water to rice farmers. The lake is down right now, one of the worst droughts on record, but is not as low as it was 2 years ago. It was another 20 feet lower then than it is now. Rain in central Texas is, has, and always will be sporadic. Lake Travis refilled over a one week period 2 years ago when it rained 25 inches in one day in Marble Falls.

There has also been legislation to force water districts and other providers to use surface water rather than water from wells. Land in flatter "dirt" areas is subsiding due to the amount of water being pumper out of the ground. In Houston alone, billion dollar contracts are being debated about how to get water from the San Jacinto and Brazos rivers. Lake Houston already provides alot of water to the northeast portions of the city.

I don't live on Lake Travis but I am within 5 miles of it and Lake Austin. We are not currently on water restrictions. After the drought from 2 years ago, a plan was implemented on conserving water and has proven that it works. This is supposed to be the most severe level of drought, but I can water my yard and wash my truck.

[This message has been edited by Ted Logan (edited 3/3/2009 4:36p).]

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Unfortunate, yes. Makes those who've purchased lots on constant level lakes such as LBJ and Marble Falls look like geniuses.

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The lake is typically at a constant level, but my grandfather ,who lives on lake marble falls, called about three days saying they had drained the lake. They do this about every five years. Would this make it a non-constant level lake?

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I'd rather be lucky than good.

Occasionally they drain lakes for dock repair, invasive species control, etc. I don't know if this is the specific case for Lake MF - just a guess.

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subsiding due to the amount of water being pumper out

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this is a partial cause, but a major factor in the subsidence is the fact the ground houston is on a relatively new in the geologic time frame and is still being compacted by time and overburden.

thus the "rock" Houston lies on is still lithifying.

Husky is correct. LCRA lowers those two lakes for several days in winter so adjacent property owners can repair piers and docks and remove debris.

I just checked out the website that was posted above (draininglake travis.org) That thing is a joke. The whole "DELTA" thing is a bunch of liberals that don't hink things through completely. They jump on a cause, just to have something to complain about.

One of their chief points of action is to make sure cities have more than one source for water. Do they not realize that the plant that is being built (the cause for all the issues) is to provide another source of water for Austin? Also, it is not practical to provide 2 sources of water for every city. The are also proponents of desalination of water from the Gulf of Mexico. Is that really practical for people in Austin or further west.

What would Austin's 2nd source be? They already pull water from the colorado river basin (lakes travis/austin/etc...) The ground water serves San Antonio (Edwards Aquifer). If we pull more water from there, South Texas will suffer.

I agree with ursus. HOA's and garden societies will have to learn to use tougher native plants in lawns and flowerbeds, and have to accept that watering isn't always going to be viable. We need it for consumption, SANITATION, and food production first.

In the end, all our environmental problems come down to population. People need to STOP at 2 replacement kids voluntarily, if you are really concerned about resource management. It's also easier to NOT produce a burden on society if more resources are divided amongst fewer children.

We all like children, but we're not all on the farm anymore, and we don't have a 50% attrition rate to death before adulthood.

but how will we get enough monies from the gov'ment with only two kids?

and is that two kids per father, or two kids per mother?

The water problems in the US & Texas aren't caused by people having more than two kids. (We're stagnant as a population if you take away immigration). They are caused by more people moving internally to dry places like Texas & the rest of the Southwest. (More straws into the same amount of water)

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HOA's and garden societies will have to learn to use tougher native plants in lawns and flowerbeds, and have to accept that watering isn't always going to be viable.

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This has pretty much been a fact of life in Austin/San Antonio for the past decade or more. Average per capita consumption in the region has actually gone down through restrictions & education. The most simple way to make people conserve water is to make them pay through the freaking teeth for using too much.

But it isn't the HOA's or garden societies that use most of the water... Agriculture & industrial use accounts for around 75% of the water used in Texas. (If memory serves.) Most new golf courses & many commercial projects these days are using reclaimed water for irrigation. I think we'll continue to see an uptick in that type of irrigation as well as rainwater harvesting.

Golf courses are a big culprit, as are HOA's that require well watered lawns.

Texas is not arid, but it isn't wet enough to support the folks who are moving in to areas like the Hill Country.

In all honesty, the Hill Country is pretty, but it has always lacked the resources to support large amount of people or industry.

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In the end, all our environmental problems come down to population. People need to STOP at 2 replacement kids voluntarily, if you are really concerned about resource management. It's also easier to NOT produce a burden on society if more resources are divided amongst fewer children.

We all like children, but we're not all on the farm anymore, and we don't have a 50% attrition rate to death before adulthood.

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Guess I should kill off two of mine...

Note: "voluntarily". I'm from a HUGE family. I have something like 53 first cousins.

I'm not against big families if you can support them because for everyone that has 3-4 kids, there is someone that has 0-1 kids. I'm kind of looking at the overall average. AS said above, in the USA, it isn't bad at all, like 2.1.

My commentary is aimed more at the people that pop out 6 kids with 3 different people and couldn't afford to feed, clothe, and support but maybe 1 or 2 of those children. This is a HUGE problem in the third world....and they keep trying to send the extras over here!

[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 3/5/2009 10:16a).]

Gotcha! Besides, I couldn't decide which ones to give up...

I think its time to build more lakes. It will eventually rain again, and we need to capture it. Any way to divert stimulus dollars to a worthwhile project???

If it weren't for illegal immigrants, the birthrate in the US would be much lower. That sounds good on paper, but the result is that there is no one around (who speaks English) to provide services when you are 90 years old.

Europe has this problem now... their birthrate has been in the dumps for decades. The void is being filled by muslim immigrants. Here we have Mexicans.

Societies that fail to repopulate themselves dissapear from the earth. Demographic fail.