David Crossley

No Plan B for water

President, Houston Tomorrow; Mitchell Sustainable Fellow, Aug 16, 11.

Tagged with climate change, water, drought, global warming, heat

[Originally published in the Houston Chronicle]

At a panel discussion about water last week, an audience member asked one of the speakers who had described Texas’s optimistic water plan “But if this drought right now isn’t just an unusual blip and it’s more like what the future will be, what’s plan B?”

The speaker’s response: “There is no plan B.”

Normally by now we’d have had nearly four feet of water in Houston, but this year we’ve had less than one foot. So what if this worst drought in Texas history is the new normal? What if 10-12 inches of rain a year is what’s going to be typical, instead of 48 inches?

Most of the water we use comes from lakes, reservoirs we’ve built to hold rainwater. When it rains regularly those reservoirs stay full, no problem. But during drought, the sun and wind evaporate that water pretty fast. That’s what’s happening now, during record temperatures.

Regional officials have been deciding in recent days to institute mandatory water restrictions. In the next few days they may decide to let tons of water out of Lake Conroe to raise the level of Lake Houston, where underwater pumps are nearly exposed, which would cause them to fail.

And while we’re praying for water, we’re getting ready to have the hottest August on record, and have already set a record for most consecutive days at 100 degrees or more – and today we broke that record, and forecast for the next two days will all be records. MORE

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