Texas is at an historical crossroads. The era of plentiful water, when needs
could be readily met with new water supply development, is coming to a close.
Texas currently has approximately 16 million acre-feet per year or 14.5 billion
gallons of water a day, of dependable conventional freshwater supplies from its
surface and groundwater sources such as manmade reservoirs and groundwater
aquifers. Even if all economically feasible reservoirs are developed and
groundwater was withdrawn at its average rate of recharge, only another three to
five billion gallons a day of dependable supply could be developed. The ultimate
source of all fresh water is precipitation, but when it does not rain, many
perspectives can change. In the mid 1990s, two events occurred in Texas, one
planned and one not, which resulted in an increased focus on water issues. The
first was the update of the Texas Water Plan through a consensus process
involving the State's planning, environmental, regulatory, and wildlife agencies.
The second was a drought of short duration in 1996; a drought that saw more than
340 communities ration water, severe crop loss, and widespread wildfires. These
two events helped focus Texas' citizens, agencies, and legislators alike on the
need for revisions to the way Texas looks at water supply, drought management,
and the need for water conservation, reuse, and other innovative technologies
such as desalting, rainwater harvesting, brush control, and aquifer storage and
recovery. The result was a set of legislative, policy, and regulatory actions
that will continue to have dramatic impact on water conservation, drought
management, and water reuse practices in Texas. Reuse of treated effluent
continues to grow and much of the new legislative and regulatory activity
involves water reuse. The purpose of this paper is to look at the current status
of reuse in Texas, examine the potential of reuse in the future, and briefly
describe some of the institutional and technical activities that will affect
reuse. Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 130 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 01/01/2000 |
