Well, here we are after months with no post, and a half-hour just trying to remember my password to log in. I really haven’t been by here in way too long. Considered making a post back when the Greanias story broke last week, but settled for making a snarky comment. I would SO push for jury nullification, if I were called to serve. (Edit: Nullification of the poor sap being prosecuted for “falsifying a government document”; that is, a time card.)
But let’s face it, there are some things even more important that trying to get back control of our government from the perverts, hypocrites, and crooks with delusions of controlling our everyday lives.
Having enough safe water to drink. And on this one, I feel our administration has been tanking. (Har, har). Ok, so the Mayor declared that, by golly, we’re going to Stage 2 water rationing, andobythewayweregoingtodrawdownLakeConroenobigdeal.
It’s a big deal all right. While we are in a drought of epic proportions (about 85% of the state is in “Extreme Drought” conditions*, the most severe), the administration has done next to nothing about it, aside from bring some contractors on board to try and keep up with the leaks. Frankly, I’m surprised we haven’t had a major sinkhole somewhere yet, thanks to a washout from a broken water line. I do know where there’s some suspicious dips in the road…
*EDIT: The map has been updated, and apparently there is a 4th level: Exceptional. 90% of Texas is covered. Not sure why there’s differences between the maps.
But that’s just what the public sees. What’s going on behind the scenes, with the TCEQ, which monitors water levels and administers the state’s water rights?
Well, see this:
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/response/drought/letters.html
Key sentence, in relation to the Brazos river:
However, to ensure we can continue to maintain adequate supplies of surface waters for diverters, the TCEQ is now requiring that all municipalities in senior call areas that have not been suspended due to the senior call must implement mandatory water use restrictions in their drought contingency plans that include prevention of outdoor lawn watering.
Emphasis in original. This is the latest (8-8-11) in a series of warnings and actual water restrictions placed on surface water usage along the Brazos, going back to March. May; March was a different river basin, sorry!
Houston has rights to about 60% of the Brazos (or so I was told), so I can’t square it with the Chronicle’s article. Perhaps it was 60% of a part, or perhaps we haven’t implemented it yet — the SW Water plant is finished but where does it get its water from? It may be that the article I read years ago was in error, or the city is gaming some aspect of the cooperative agreement under which it built and operates the SW water treatment plant, in order to push the more severe restrictions on the small cities out that way. (I need to check what restrictions other districts have placed.)
Now all that has to do with the Brazos. About the San Jacinto, the TCEQ is eerily silent. I’m not sure if it has a reason, such as not having the same authority in the San Jac watershed as in areas further west. But we don’t need them to give us warning… we can read the graphs ourselves.
Lake Houston Water Level (It’s in Flash, so I can’t copy and post it here.)
That blue area down at the bottom is the current lake level. And bear in mind that the level is NOT the depth of the lake…it’s how high the top of the lake is above sea level. But don’t worry, the mayor says we’re going to top off from Lake Conroe!
Worried yet? Keep going.
Here’s four maps of the San Jacinto basin. The left pair shows the “normal” water right availability in the San Jac and Brazos Coastal basins. The pair on the right show the current status. Blue is maxed out.
“These maps are generated from WAM output for both of the permitting runs (Full Authorization and Current Conditions) for each basin. The maps generally indicate the percentage of months during the period of record that unappropriated water is available at various locations in each basin.”
That’s right, fully 80% of the county is tapped out. There are no additional water rights to be had, because current levels are too low.
But don’t worry, we draw water all the way from the Trinity!
Er, the east side isn’t much better off. If you scroll up two rows, you’ll see the Trinity River Basin. Just about everything south of Navarro is in the 50-75% level, with the lowest part of the Trinity fully engaged. That means up to 75% of the recent period, no additional water was available. NOT that there is 25% capacity remaining.
The message is clear — we’re fast running out of water capacity in Houston. The question is, why hasn’t the mayor been doing anything about it, or trying to draw more attention to the need to conserve?
Well, I’m not going to suggest that contrasting water rationing and conservation messages due to a drought with a newly imposed “rainfall tax” might have caused a few circuits – and people – to blow their tops from irony! Oh, no.
But, if I find the time to write some more tomorrow, I might discuss yet another failure of vision and leadership by former Mayor Bill White, in the form of the flawed drought ordinances he left the city with, over PW&E’s objections, which have tied our hands in trying to deal with the crisis.