Paper water rights deceptive

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.

Texas Agriculture Losses Reach $3.6 Billion

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.

Exelon Still Holding On To Guadalupe Water

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.

Drought On Way To Being Costliest Ever

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.”

Drought Conditions Turn Dire In Parts Of 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.

Water Worries… A Serious Issue

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.

Downstream Demands Require Increased Releases from Canyon

Due to the current drought conditions and increased demands for water supply by the City of Victoria, the Guadalupe-Blanco River
Authority (GBRA) will increase the release rate from Canyon Lake from 60 cfs to 125 cfs effective at 1:00 p.m. today.

As Guadalupe River Reaches Critical Levels, TSEPA Contends: Not Enough Water for Exelon

With the Guadalupe River reaching critical levels, members of Texans for a Sound Energy Policy Alliance (TSEPA) today question how the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) and Exelon continue to believe that there is enough water for the proposed Exelon nuclear power plant near Victoria.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that much of the Guadalupe River was running at less than 10 percent of its normal flow. On June 22, 2009 the Victoria Advocate reported 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.

Victoria’s Choice: the nuke, or the Guadalupe and the whooper?

I suppose I can respect why the city of Victoria thinks its water needs are covered by spending millions of dollars on water rights - it’s their job to make sure they’ve secured enough water for the city - at least on paper. But those rights have little value if there is no water in the river.

Silent Springs

Sixty feet below the shimmering surface of Jacob’s Well, an artesian spring that for thousands of years has pulsed iridescent blue-green water from the Trinity Aquifer to the surface, a sophisticated instrument measures the spring’s vital signs. The results are beamed almost instantaneously to the Internet.

These days the gauge detects only the thinnest of pulses.