28 Feb Nuances of Water Conservation and Use

Sierra Club posted our Conservation Committee bit on water conservation yesterday, and I wanted to take some time to write a bit more about the nuances of policy on that.  Specifically, how we manage our water use most wisely.

This is Texas, so none employed by the State are allowed to say the phrase "Global warming", lest they lose their state jobs (well, they can say it as long as they are denying it exists).  We have, therefore, a "30 year drought" on our hands.   That will put us right about mid-century, when the feedback loops of methane release from previously frozen swamps, massive carbon release from dying forests (mostly by burning), and loss of ocean capacity to store the excess carbon we are pumping out guarantee we will reach at least a 4 degree F rise in temp, and more likely a 6-8 degree rise.  Thus, the "30 year drought" will continue for the next several centuries, leaving central Texas and the Austin area at the northern edge of a great desert that stretches from – more or less – I-35 to California, upwards through the mid Rocky Mountain states, and down into Mexico.

Water, when this area gets it, will mostly be from winter rains (hopefully more rather than less), hurricanes, and El Nino events.  The only redeeming aspects of this future are the projections of El Nino events: the warmer the Pacific, the more El Ninos are projected to occur.  We will pray for El Nino's.  Unhappily for California and the West, El Ninos produce the same kind of drought conditions there that La Ninas produce here. It is a zero sum game, this future we are creating; either we get water, or California gets it.  Guess where they will move when they don't get it?  Correct: where it is going – at least that year……..

Into this almost pathetically futile future steps Austin W/WW to deal with current drought conditions and water resources.  Austin W/WW utiliy has an ongoing public participation exercise that allows community input into whatever new water use regulations it will adopt to deal with the ongoing drought, which, the State Meteorologist tells us, will then "return us to our normal weather patterns."  Can't lose that State job…….

The Nuances of all this: our water comes from the Highland Lakes chain, which has a fair amount of water right now.  The problem was, 65% of it was being sent to rice farmers down at the base of the River.  LCRA has now been allowed by TCEQ to admit that perhaps feeding a man-made swamp to grow rice might not be the best idea during a severe drought, and LCRA has told the farmers they will not get the second season of water they have been expecting.  That will save bunches of water for cities along the river, including Austin.  Thus, we ought to be able to return to our regular water use patterns, at least for the coming year, since we will have enough water for us, if not them.   On the other hand, unless we get a good couple of years of rain, our own use can gradually draw down the river and lakes to a point in the near future that we too, will not have enough, like it or not.  Pray for rain.  That was, if I remember correctly, the solution our Governor suggested we adopt to this entire problem.

What to do?  Austin Sierra Club suggests conservation as our only realistic long term strategy.  How we do conservation, though, can become tricky.  Trees, for example.  It turns out a tree canopy can help retain water in the soils, and maintain greater humidity, by trapping water vapor under the canopy, and shading the soil so that less evaporates.  Watering trees therefore can either help conserve water at least, or maybe bring us into some kind of vague stasis on water at best.  Our Conservation Committee members are going to the Water/Waste Water meetings and talking about this, asking that any new watering policy include the ability to water our trees.  How would a homeowner do so and not water her yard?  Your guess/idea is as good as mine; all this is in the development stages, but theoretically we would all know exactly who is doing which.  Watering trees would be under the drip line, so grass would be green under the trees and brown away from them.  All neighbors would know who was playing by the water rules.  Would any speak out?  Call the Water Police?  Sierra Club has no stance on that; as an individual I can only suggest funny scenes for a short story involving mysterious green circles in my neighbor's yard…….

Another nuance is the unknown of when water will come to us.  The Highland Lakes chain was built for the precise reason of water storage for droughts, just like we are going through now.  It was also build to reduce flooding.  Both will be necessary, as El Nino and Hurricanes will bring floods – massive amounts of water moving over dry parched land – which the lakes can capture and store.  As long as we do not create man-made swamps to grow rice in  Texas, it may be that we really do have enough stored water to water our lawns and fill our pools in some years.  Many, if we are lucky.  But that assumes we stop giving water to rice farming.  That assumption will almost surely not hold; LCRA will continue to give them water except for extreme drought years like now.  Thus 65% of the water we could be storing for long term use will be sent for a short term use.  Global warming – uh, sorry, I mean, 30 year droughts – produce zero sum games, and few of those are pretty.

We are therefore at a place where we need to decide on priorities: cities and viable urban ecosystems, including a wet, healthy tree canopy, or rice farming down river every year.  At the same time, we need to plan for a much dryer future for both on the assumption that we will NOT get enough water to keep using what we have been up till now.  Maybe we will (prayer, everyone?  perhaps if we all pray together? real loud? Luck might factor in as well).  Thus, we need to think about prioritizing the use of water for things that will help conserve water over the long run, including a policy that allows us to keep our urban trees wet and healthy so that we retain more water.  That in itself can seem counter-intuitive when we talk about conservation, but it is one of the interesting nuances in all this.