Greg Burns

August 3, 2009

After the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, years passed before anyone took seriously the idea of a nuclear revival. Then our friend the atom started making a comeback.

Rising demand for energy provided a boost. And the outpouring of concern about climate change put fossil fuels and their carbon emissions at center stage as environmental enemy No. 1. Utilities across the country began laying the groundwork for new reactors, following the lead of Europe and Asia.

Yet talk of a “nuclear renaissance” has run into a financial meltdown.

New nukes cost big bucks — bigger bucks, in fact, than anticipated just a year or two ago. Some new U.S. plants will be built, with vast federal subsidies and regulated recoveries of their costs

But a “renaissance?”

Not likely.

“It’s not the burst of activity once expected,” said Jim Joosten, senior analyst at the government’s Energy Information Administration. “It comes down to economics. It’s a business decision.”

The reality checks have hit from all sides.

Perhaps most significant, prices of natural gas have plunged over the past year. Cheap to build and cleaner than coal, gas-fired power plants represent the best bet by far at the moment, though commodity-market volatility could change the calculations in a hurry.

Second, cost estimates for building new nuclear plants have soared as specific design plans and site studies replaced vague projections. Building nuclear plants could run $4,200 per kilowatt of capacity — Exelon Corp.’s current rough estimate — so not only natural gas but also wind power “probably” would be more economical to develop, said John Rowe, chief executive at the Chicago-based utility.

Touting the advantages of wind is an unorthodox position for the head of America’s biggest nuclear utility, which Rowe acknowledged: “This is like the Vatican coming out for birth control.”

Still, he said, the numbers argue for deferring the costliest nuclear projects.

At the same time, Rowe is at the forefront of a stealth nuclear expansion. For years, Exelon and other operators have been squeezing more power from existing facilities, which at this later stage of their useful lives are pretty much cash cows.

Called “up-rating,” the practice has produced the equivalent of several new reactors since the 1970s, and the game’s not over: The Energy Information Administration expects more than one-fifth of the nation’s fresh nuclear capacity between 2007 and 2030 to come from up-rates, not new construction.

“It’s effectively a new nuclear unit,” said Neil Kalton, a veteran analyst at Wachovia Corp., now a Wells Fargo company. “But ultimately, you can only do so much.”

Although nuclear power has benefited from well-funded public-relations campaigns, nobody expects a return to the “friendly atom” days of the 1950s.

Chernobyl, especially, will haunt the industry as it seeks to build new plants. In the U.S. and elsewhere, charity-minded groups have made an annual event of hosting needy children from the Chernobyl area who would otherwise spend their summer exposed to lingering radiation.

Some 23 years after the disaster, Chernobyl still represents an imminent health threat — and a reminder of the high stakes posed by splitting the atom for electricity.

“It was a human error that did this. It could happen again,” said Patty Doyle, president of the Chernobyl Children Project USA, which brought 70 children to the Boston area this year. “I personally don’t think we have all the safeguards.”

Read article here

Jerry Morrisey - Special to the Express-News

Two recent Express-News articles were highly predictive of South Texas’s future: “This dry spell may be the drought of record” and “Energy giant wants to keep Guadalupe River water rights.” The two highlight the relationship between nuclear power and water.

Global warming studies predict South Texas will experience longer and more severe droughts. The first article reported that the “U.S. Department of Agriculture said San Antonio experienced its driest 22-month period on record through June, with less than 24 inches of rain since September 2007. That’s 39 percent of normal and beat the prior record - set from December 1908 to September 1910 - by more than two inches … ”

The article added, “Nowhere else in the continental United States is there a drought as extreme as what South and Central Texas are experiencing … ” The drought is accompanied by record temperatures.

The future is here and its reality is staring us in the face.

The proponents of adding two reactors to the South Texas Project argue that the reactors have no water problem because of a firm Lower Colorado River Authority commitment. But the commitment terminates when a drought exceeds the worst drought of record, which may be what we are having right now. When that occurs, the reactors get a pro-rated share, as do all others entitled to LCRA water. If there is insufficient water available to STP, the operators will have to turn the reactors off.

Without water that is cool enough, nuclear reactors have to shut down. That is happening right now in France, which must shut down one-third of its reactors because the cooling water is too warm. U.S. reactors have also gone off-line for the same reason.

Nuclear reactors are water hogs. STP Units 1 and 2 currently evaporate on average 37,100 acre-feet each year from the main cooling reservoir. Two additional units would increase that evaporation by 37,300 acre-feet, about 25 percent of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer allocation during extreme drought.

The second article reported that Exelon Energy plans to retain its rights to take 75,000 acre-feet of water from the Guadalupe River, though the two reactors planned for Victoria are now on hold. A dispute erupted between people wanting water for agricultural and municipal needs and the energy giant wanting to keep its potential for building the reactors in the future.

The newspaper reported, “The situation highlights the tension between those looking to serve the power needs of a growing state and those worried about a water supply that seems increasingly stressed under the pressure of growth - and now, severe drought.”

Nuclear proponents ignore climate change reality and the needs of people at the peril of new nuclear power not delivering when most-needed in times of extreme heat and drought.

Jerry Morrisey has participated in San Antonio water discussions for two decades

Read article here

Nuclear firm eliminates local community outreach position

By Allison Miles

Exelon Nuclear’s local office will close and Bill Harris’ position as manager of community outreach for Texas will be eliminated, Harris announced Tuesday.

“I was not laid off,” he said to about 60 people at the Victoria Economic Development Corporation’s Victoria Partnership meeting. “I still have a job, just not here.”

Exelon notified Harris on July 21 that he could either take an early retirement or accept a community manager position in Clinton, Ill.

“At this point, I have accepted my boss’ offer,” he said.

Exelon announced about a month ago that it would eliminate 400 business service positions and another 100 with its utility subsidiary, said Craig Nesbit, Exelon’s director of communication.

The company is still in its early site permit stage for the proposed Victoria County plant and isn’t required to make a decision to build. It could be a few years or 20 years before something actually happens, Nesbit said, and Exelon didn’t see the need to maintain the local office.

The office will likely close within a month or two but could re-open in the future, depending on what happens in the future, he said.

The local office opened in May 2008, although Harris was not in town full time until that July.

Anyone who knows Harris and his wife know they’ve loved Victoria since the day they arrived, Harris said. If there were local work for him, he said he would likely have made a different decision.

“But I haven’t been able to find anything,” he said.

Read article here

By Jim Blackburn - Special to the Express-News

Central Texas is experiencing one of the worst natural droughts of the last 50 years. It’s dry and we all know it - we feel it. And during such times, it makes a lot of sense to seriously question our state and local water policies. When it rains, we have enough for all of our dreams. It is when we are dry that reality appears.

There is a business case to be made regarding the real availability of water. It does none of us any good to recruit industry and development if there is no water to serve it, or if those of us already here are cut back. Good business practice requires sound water supplies.

So as a state, how sound is our water? In the 1950s and ’60s, thousands of paper water right certificates were issued on our major river systems. These surface water rights are considered totally independent of the seeps and springs that provide the base flow of our rivers because Texas law separates ground and surface water. In spite of the massive use of groundwater that has occurred in the Hill Country and throughout the state - water use that has slowly but surely impacted the dependability of the base flow - we have never revisited these rights.

These paper water rights can be exceedingly misleading. There are many ways that games can be played, that rights can be created, that water can be legally taken from neighbors and communities. By relying on paper to manage our water resources, we have the appearance of stability without adequate underpinnings or protections.

Last month, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority renewed its agreement with Exelon reserving 75,000 acre-feet of paper water rights for proposed nuclear reactors in Victoria County. This reservation is equivalent to more than 24 billion gallons of water annually from the Guadalupe River.

Parallel to selling these water rights the GBRA has issued drought warnings, requesting conservation, and was forced to more than double the amount of water being released from Canyon Lake in an effort to address the water needs of the city of Victoria down river. This release equated to approximately 42 million gallons of water for a single 24-hour period.

GBRA is simultaneously telling the residents along the Guadalupe River that they need to conserve water because of the extreme drought conditions and that immense amounts of unused water rights exist on the Guadalupe, such that there is more than enough water for Exelon. The Guadalupe is proving to us right now that Mother Nature overrides state-issued water rights. As things stand now, I question the integrity and the validity of a system that says that more water exists in the Guadalupe River when it’s running dry.

While the current natural drought conditions may subside, we run the risk of perpetuating these conditions if we allow the Exelon project to consume such vast amounts of such a precious resource. If we allow GBRA to continue to rely on paper water, instead of real water, the current drought could become our permanent reality.

Jim Blackburn is an environmental attorney for Texans for a Sound Energy Policy Alliance.

Read article here

By BETSY BLANEY (AP) - 12 minutes ago

LUBBOCK, Texas - Drought in Texas has led to an estimated $3.6 billion in crop and livestock losses, and without ample rains, the year’s final tally could top the state record set in 2006, Texas agriculture officials say.

Crops and rangeland are scorched from lack of rainfall and record triple-digit temperatures throughout parts of Texas - the nation’s second-largest agriculture state behind California. Much of the central and southern parts of the state have been in the two most severe stages of drought for months.

Agriculture officials in the state, which leads the nation in cotton and cattle production, estimated Monday that total crop losses attributed to the drought that started in November have reached $2.6 billion. Livestock losses have reached an additional $974 million. And officials have not yet tallied how much ranchers will lose from having fewer cattle to breed or from selling calves earlier than usual because they don’t have pasture on which their animals can graze.

It could be two years before a reduced beef supply and higher prices hit the grocery store, said Travis Miller, a drought specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension. He noted that many cattle being sold at Texas sale barns will end up in states where grazing lands are better.

As far as cotton, U.S. and world supplies left over from previous years are still high, so the amount grown in Texas this year won’t influence the price of a T-shirt or blue jeans, said Roger Haldenby, spokesman for the Plains Cotton Growers, which serves a 41-county region of western Texas that is the world’s largest contiguous growing patch.

If dry conditions persist, losses could surpass the $4.1 billion in agriculture losses three years ago, the highest amount ever in Texas in a single year. That drought spread across more of the state than this year’s, said Carl Anderson, an economist and professor emeritus at Texas AgriLife Extension.

“The last three months of this drought have been so, so severe,” Anderson said. “The critical factor here is how soon will we get soaking rains.”

Texas agriculture officials said they factored in cattle losses going back through November, when the current drought began. The $3.6 billion in losses came during a span of about nine months; the record losses in 2006 covered 12 months.

It is so dry in some parts of Texas that water for livestock and wildlife is evaporating. According to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map, released July 14, 55 of Texas’ 254 counties are in extreme or exceptional drought; no other part of the nation is that dry.

Extreme drought conditions can lead to major crop and pasture losses; extreme fire danger; and widespread water shortages. Exceptional conditions can lead to widespread crop and pasture losses; an even greater fire risk; and water emergencies, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“I can’t remember it getting so bad so fast because of extreme heat,” said Jim McAdams, a fourth-generation rancher in central Texas and past president of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. “This is one of the worst hot spells I’ve ever been through.”

According to Texas AgriLife Extension, range and pasture conditions are poor or fair over more than 85 percent of Texas.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture rates a third of Texas’ cotton acreage as very poor or poor. Dry conditions indicate a large amount of acreage will likely be abandoned, and a small cotton crop is expected because of lost acreage and low yields.

Texas crops besides cotton are also hurting. More than 40 percent of corn and sorghum were in the poor category. Loss estimates for goats, sheep, honey and horses totaled $105 million.

To deal with the lack of pasture for cattle, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples has asked the USDA to allow ranchers to graze their animals on Conservation Reserve Lands, acreage set aside for conservation purposes. He sent two letters seeking help - one in May and one last week.

“Many of our farmers and ranchers are frustrated today,” Staples said Monday. “Frustration won’t make it rain. Immediate action by USDA will ease their pain.”

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Read full story

Exelon Energy’s plans to build two nuclear reactors near Victoria may be on hold, but it hasn’t stopped the power company from reserving the rights to 75,000 acre-feet of precious Guadalupe River water for another year - and maybe longer.

The deal, which the Chicago-based energy behemoth inked with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, has worried some Victoria-area residents.

They argue the river doesn’t hold enough water to quench the region’s current thirst, let alone feed the massive reservoir needed to cool nuclear reactors.

“The river is just flat dry,” said Houston environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, who has been hired by a community organization to oppose Exelon. “It’s just a mess right now, and there is no way you can put a firm demand for 75,000 more acre-feet.”

But the energy company and the river authority swear there is, even as the Guadalupe is running from time to time at less than 10 percent of its average flow at periods during the record drought gripping much of the state.

“I understand how people can get this wrapped around their head by looking at the river and saying no way, but it doesn’t work that way,” Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit said. “We’ve done studies and studies of the studies, and follow-up studies of the studies. Those water rights exist whether we build a plant or not. The only question is how you choose to use them.”

The situation highlights the tension between those looking to serve the power needs of a growing state and those worried about a water supply that seems increasingly stressed under the pressure of growth - and now, severe drought.

Exelon has backed off its deal to build two nuclear reactors near Victoria for the time being because of economic uncertainties.

Among the issues clouding the deal is Exelon’s failure to make the short list of projects to receive federal loan guarantees, and its attempted hostile takeover of NRG Energy - which is proposing to build two more nuclear reactors outside Bay City in a multibillion-dollar partnership with San Antonio’s CPS Energy.

But even with its projects on the ropes, Exelon still is seeking a site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that would allow it to restart the Victoria project anytime over the next 20 years. Key among the needs is a water supply capable of filing its cooling reservoirs.

Exelon had an agreement with the river authority to reserve 75,000 acre-feet - more than a third of the water all of San Antonio uses during a dry year. The agreement, which is simply to hold the rights and doesn’t involve any actual water, would have ended June 30 without the extension. But Exelon paid the river authority $1.1 million to extend the water rights reservation for a year with the understanding it would begin negotiating a longer extension next month.

Eventually, if Exelon builds, it could buy the water rights. Currently, they go for $100 an acre-foot, which at 75,000 acre-feet would cost $7.5 million a year.

Farmers and cities that hold junior rights, like Victoria and Kerrville, have been cut off from river water at times during the drought and forced to rely more on well water.

The river authority earlier this month released water from Canyon Lake down the river to help the cities downstream

The Exelon deal makes no sense to Victoria area rancher David Huber, 61, who has watched the Guadalupe and the nearby San Antonio River dwindle over the past two years. The river’s authority’s most recent drought report showed the Guadalupe’s flow near Victoria is 187 cubic feet per second, about 18 percent of its average flow.

“As far as water down here, we just don’t have it,” he said. “It’s as bad as I’ve seen it in my lifetime. The whole point is the ’50s drought was not as bad. If we didn’t have mesquite and huisache, the cattle would be starving.”

But river authority General Manager Bill West said the connection between the diminished river flow and the amount of water available isn’t as direct as it might seem because the authority has water in Canyon Lake.

“It seems to make some sense, but they overlook the fact that the water rights that are being committed to that project are some of the most senior water rights on the river,” West said. “There is growth potential for our folks down there. We’re not selling the last drop, as some people would have it seem.”

Read full article

By William Pack- Express-News

Area farmers and ranchers don’t need a color-coded map or a gloomy weather report to know they’re at ground zero of what is becoming one of Texas’ worst droughts ever.

They see it daily in parched fields too dry for seeds to sprout; in stock tanks that carried water during the legendary drought of the 1950s but now are cracked and dry; in prickly pear cactus so thin that they don’t provide much moisture when their needles are burned off for skinny cows to enjoy.

Even some of the hardy live oak, hackberry and mesquite trees that have defied Texas’ harsh environment are beginning to show stress, one agricultural expert said.

“This is about as bad as it gets,” said Bryan Davis, a Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent in Bexar County who farms and ranches near the Guadalupe County line. “We can’t catch a break.”

Joe Taylor, an extension service agent in Atascosa County south of San Antonio, said he’s beginning to question claims that the current dry spell simply matches the severity of the historic drought from the 1950s.

“In fact, this drought may be the drought of record before long,” said Taylor.

San Antonio residents don’t have much reason to argue.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said San Antonio experienced its driest 22-month period on record through June, with less than 24 inches of rain since September 2007.

That’s 39 percent of normal and beat the prior record - set from December 1908 to September 1910 - by more than 2 inches, a department bulletin said. Now experts from Texas A&M University and its extension arms suspect the drought, which has choked wide swaths of Texas for almost two years, could become the state’s costliest in modern times.

In March, agricultural economists said losses associated with the drought were approaching $1 billion, and the situation has worsened considerably since then, particularly in South Texas.

Carl Anderson, a professor emeritus and extension economist, said that without strong rainfall in the next few months, losses for cattle and crops could climb past the $4.1 billion mark set in the 2006 drought - Texas’ modern record.

“It’s very severe and it’s broad based,” Anderson said. “It’s not leaving any aspect of agriculture without a loss.”

Nowhere else in the continental Unites States is there a drought as extreme as what South and Central Texas are experiencing, according to the newest U.S. Drought Monitor map.

An area from San Antonio stretching north toward Austin and west to Uvalde, has been categorized as being in an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought since 2009 started.

“It’s South, Central Texas. What do you expect?” asked Mike Schaefer, who raises grain sorghum, corn and some hay near St. Hedwig.

He has cut back on his fertilizer, seed and other input costs because he suspected the drought would linger. Schaefer doesn’t expect his fields to produce more than 30 percent of an average crop, and he may be one of the fortunate ones.

Jeff Nunley, executive director of the South Texas Cotton & Grain Association, said data from the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation indicates less than 12 percent of the cotton acreage planted in South Texas will be harvested. The yield on those acres also is likely to plummet because of the drought.

Nunley suspects grain farmers will see the same kind of results.

“This is going to be the worst one ever, I think,” he said.

Cotton production is so paltry, several cotton gins in the area aren’t expected to open, he said. Whether they have enough savings to open next year is open to question.

Area ranchers aren’t faring any better.

The drought has forced ranchers to purchase high-priced hay and supplemental feed early because their fields produced so little for their cattle to eat.

With costs skyrocketing and water running low, ranchers have cut deeply into their herds, taking calves to market sooner and thinner than they would like, and even selling mature cows that keep the herds growing.

Roy Wheeler, an Atascosa County rancher who runs the livestock auction outside Pleasanton, said cows are being auctioned off at about three times their normal numbers. At that pace, he believes the numbers of female cattle could fall to about 30 percent of average by year’s end.

“We’re selling the factory, so they say,” said Wheeler.

Cattle sales are expected to keep growing as the drought wears on, which should push beef prices up long term, officials said.

More ranchers could sell out entirely, opting to lease land to hunters or try other wildlife activities that have moved rapidly into South Texas.

Anderson said extended droughts like the one in South Texas, are a threat to the cattle industry, and Texas has the largest in the nation.

“It’s harder to stay in business financially, and it’s harder to come back in once you leave,” he said.

But it’s not anything new for Texas agricultural interests who’ve learned to cope with wildly unpredictable weather.

“If I was going to be mad at anybody, I’d be mad at my ancestors for not moving somewhere where it rains a lot,” said Schaefer, the St. Hedwig farmer.

Instead, since he has not found anything he likes to do better than farming, he said he’d keep at it.

Read full article

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer Betsy Blaney, Associated Press Writer - Wed Jul 8, 3:17 am ET

LUBBOCK, Texas - If not for the triple-digit heat, central Texas rancher Debbie Davis could almost think it was a different season entirely.

“The (pasture) grass looks like it’s the dead of winter,” said Davis, who raises beef cattle and Texas Longhorns northwest of San Antonio. The region is enduring its driest 22-month span going back to 1885. “It’s horrible. It’s probably the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Usually it’s West Texas that’s hot and dry. Now, central and southern Texas are alone in the nation in experiencing the two most severe stages of drought. About 11 percent of the state was in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought as of June 30, up from 8 percent the previous week.

That’s bad news for farmers and ranchers in the nation’s No. 2 agriculture state behind California, who could lose billions in crops and livestock.

Ranchers are sending many more cattle to sale barns, which has driven prices down. There’s little pastureland to graze on and the cost to ship hay in from out of state is high - as is the price of supplemental feed.

Three years ago in a drought that spanned more than a year, Texas lost $4.1 billion, a crop and livestock record for a single year.

“It could easily be that” again, said Travis Miller, a drought specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

The parched parts of the state are south of a line from Del Rio to Waco to Houston, while according to a U.S. Drought Monitor map released last week, much of West Texas is faring well.

“It’s a tale of two states,” said Victor Murphy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. “The only way out of this drought is some sort of tropical disturbance.”

Burn bans are in effect in more than half of the state’s 254 counties, and water restrictions never before implemented in San Antonio are likely just days away.

Houston residents welcomed some rain Tuesday, with many areas getting at least an inch and some getting as much as 3 inches. That came after the city saw its driest May 1-July 5 period since records began in 1889, receiving just 0.65 of an inch of rain in those 65 days, compared with about 10 inches usually.

The city had its second-warmest June since 1906, including seven consecutive days with temperatures of at least 100.

Folks in the San Antonio area, officials say, could see a return to drought conditions of the 1950s, which lasted about six years and affected every part of the state. From September 2007 through last month the area has gotten 23.9 inches of rain - less than half the normal amount of about 54 inches.

“It’s been ridiculously dry for going on two years now and it doesn’t help having exceptionally dry conditions this time of year,” said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state’s climatologist at Texas A&M University.

Texas produces about 16 percent of the nation’s 31.7 million head of cattle, and more than 60 percent of the state’s beef cows are in counties with extreme and exceptional drought.

The culling of the herds is not expected to affect meat prices at grocery stores. Most of the cows sold at auction are being slaughtered and used for hamburger meat. Demand and the sale of ground beef has remained strong despite the struggling economy.

But that could change, because the effects of the drought on livestock aren’t short-term. It leads to reduced conception rates and calf crops the next year, and the lack of feed results in lower cattle sale weights.

“We’ll have a lot fewer cows next year nationwide, which means higher prices,” said David Anderson, an agriculture marketing economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

Range and pasture recovery from drought can take several years and can result in lower stocking rates while ranges recover.

Crop production on the High Plains in West Texas is probably the state’s only hope to avoid another year of multibillion-dollar losses. In March, agriculture officials estimated cattle producers had lost about $830 million going back to last summer.

“Everybody’s pretty desperate,” said Davis, the rancher. “We’re all hoping for a hurricane.”

Read full story

By Dixie Pape 01.JUL.09

With the ongoing drought, June heat wave and the increasing demand, people of south and south central Texas have worries and serious concerns for our most precious resource… Water! Rivers are seeing a dramatic drop in flow levels, reservoir levels are also dropping with more in sight, and almost everyone is already on or preparing for water restrictions and conservation plans. Many of the Bulverde, Spring Branch, New Braunfels and Boerne subdivisions including Comal Trace, Cordillera Ranch and Windmill Ranch are currently under Stage 2 Drought Restrictions as are New Braunfels Utility customers. BexarMet customers hit Stage 2 Restrictions on June 15; and Canyon Lake Water Service Company (CLWS) implemented Stage 1 Drought Restrictions for customers on June 30. The City of Boerne implemented mandatory Stage 2 restrictions as of today, July 1. As of the morning of June 29, the Canyon Lake Reservoir level had dropped to 895.70 ft., from the normal 909 foot level. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) controls the amount of discharge flow from the reservoir, downstream into the Guadalupe River, when the the reservoir level is at 908.9 feet or less, meaning “conservation mode”. On June 29 the discharge flow was at 60 cfs (Cubic Feet per Second). With the Guadalupe River having dried up in some places, the flow into Canyon Lake had dwindled to a 4.4 cfs from the river on June 29, and with more demand for water in the Guadalupe River Basin, residents may soon see the lake level drop even more. On June 30, GBRA issued a press release stating it would increase the release rate from Canyon Lake from 60 cfs to 125 cfs beginning at 1:00PM that same day, due to the current drought conditions and increased demands for water supply by the City of Victoria. According to GBRA General Manager W.E. “Bill” West, the 125 cfs rate of release of water reflects the sum of the downstream commitments of water plus an amount for environmental flows. Water users upstream and downstream are implementing water conservation measures in response to the demands resulting from the drought and dwindling supplies of both surface and groundwater. Like many other cities and industry, Victoria has made an investment in their future by securing alternative water supplies to sustain them during low flow and drought conditions. Flow levels through the Basin are very low including the declining spring flows of Comal and San Marcos Springs. “Canyon is fulfilling its role of storing flood waters and releasing them to provide beneficial uses to cities, industry and others,” said West. All users throughout the Guadalupe River Basin are encouraged to limit their water usage.

The Guadalupe River Basin is looking head-on at a serious water shortage

Source: www.issuewire.com With the Guadalupe River reaching critical levels, member of Texans for a Sound Energy Policy Alliance (TSEPA) on June 24 questioned how the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and Exelon continue to believe that there is enough water for the proposed Exelon nuclear power plant near Victoria. With the U.S. Geological Survey reporting that much of the Guadalupe River was running at less than 10 percent of its normal flow, and the Victoria Advocate reporting on June 22 reporting that a city official confirmed the Guadalupe River dropped so low over the weekend that the City of Victoria had to stop pumping water for a few hours, many are left concerned about a serious water shortage. “The Guadalupe River Basin is looking head-on at a serious water shortage, even without the proposed Exelon nuclear power plan,” explains Jim Blackburn, an environmental attorney for TSEPA. “The Guadalupe is proving to us right now that Mother Nature overrides state-issed water rights.” In December 2007, the GBRA cut a deal with Exelon that reserves more than 75,000 acre feet (24 billion gallons) of water from the Guadalupe River each year for the proposed nuclear power plant. This amount of water is over 7 times the amount of water the City of Victoria uses every year. “By acting as a water merchant and not a conservation authority, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority is mismanaging this precious resource and failing as a steward of our precious water,” says Blackburn. “There is scarcely enough water throughout the Guadalupe River Basin to meet the current needs, especially during a drought. Future municipal and industrial water uses combined with climate change will only amplify this problem.” The Guadalupe River which runs from Kerrville down to the coast, not only supplies Victoria County with water; it also creates the freshwater inflows that the endangered whooping crane relies on for survival during its wintering season at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio Bay. Lower freshwater inflows have had a grave impact on the habitat of the federally endangered whooping crane that winters in the San Antonio Bay. The winter of 2008/2009 was the worst in recent history for the whooping crane, with the deaths of 23 birds or 8.5percent of the flock. Scientists believe that reduced fresh water inflows and increased salinity of the bay correlate with the crane deaths. “In a nutshell, less fresh water reached our bays and estuaries this year than can be explained by the drought,” said Blackburn. “Our current way of life is at issue. Our water recreation, our current settlement patterns, our fisheries and even the whooping cranes are at risk.” TSEPA’s mission is to support a Texas energy supply policy that is reasonable, sustainable, and environmentally sound. To learn more about TSEPA, visit www.speakupvictoria.com.

The situation has many people in south and south central Texas including those involved with TSEPA asking some very important questions… With the dwindling water supply, where is the water going to come from for all of the water promised by GBRA?

Does GBRA even have enough water rights to be promising this water to Exelon and supply all the other regional water needs like the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply Project?

What is the long-term effect of a nuclear power plant’s reservation and use of this water have, not only downstream, but on reservoirs that supply water to communities throughout the area? How will this affect our water supply? People everywhere, whether upstream or downstream should be concerned and speaking up and demanding answers. Without the precious resource of water, everyone’s future is at stake. People have lived without electricity, but you cannot live without water.

Read full article

VICTORIA, TX - Texans for a Sound Energy Policy Alliance (TSEPA) today questioned the logic of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority’s (GBRA) decision to extend its water reservation agreement with Exelon while simultaneously requesting others to conserve.

With the Guadalupe River Basin experiencing Stage 2 drought conditions, GBRA encouraged all users to limit their water usage.  Additionally, GBRA was forced to increase the release rate from Canyon Lake into the Guadalupe River in order to meet the current water supply demands for its downstream user, the City of Victoria. At the same time, GBRA accepted $1.1 million from Exelon to reserve 75,000 acre-feet from the Guadalupe for its proposed nuclear power plant near Victoria.

“By acting as a water merchant and not a conservation authority, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) is mismanaging this precious resource and failing as a steward of our precious water,” says Jim Blackburn, environmental attorney for TSEPA.  “The Canyon Lake release makes it clear that in a drought, the Guadalupe River system is already strained by current demands. If Victoria needs more water now, then clearly the Guadalupe River can’t support the future demands of a major water user like Exelon.”

The extension of the agreement coincides with Exelon’s decision to delay its plans to build a nuclear plant in Victoria County. The Chicago-based energy company announced last week that it will no longer seek a construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and instead seek an early site permit. An early site permit requires “a fairly competent water supply” according to an Exelon spokesman.

TSEPA points out that to date, neither GBRA nor Exelon has made an effort to conduct studies that would analyze the potential impact of their reservation agreement. The reservation allocates over 24 billion gallons of water from the Guadalupe each year to the energy company.

As of June 30, 2009 significant portions of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Basin are in an exceptional drought. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, water levels in the Guadalupe-Blanco River Basin are at less than 5% of the average stream flow for this time of year. The U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook predicts that the current drought affecting the basin will only intensify.

“By proceeding with their plans, GBRA and Exelon appear to be turning a blind eye to the frailty of this river system exposed by the current drought,” said Blackburn.” Texans from the Hill Country to the Bay depend on this river-for tourism, for agriculture, for industry, and for the habitat necessary to maintain the endangered whooping cranes that winter in the San Antonio Bay. We simply cannot afford to have such a big user downstream.”

The Guadalupe River Stops Flowing Near Canyon Lake. Photo by Polly Haberkorn.