The Only Option - Find More, Use Less

This is directly from the current issue of The Economist - - great summary of the problems Texas faces regarding water management - -

TEXANS always welcome the wild flowers, but seldom as much as this spring. Hills and roadsides have exploded with bluebonnets and Indian blankets. Last spring they were hardly to be found. This month the Texas Agrilife Extension Service is holding workshops for people hoping to rebuild their beef business; in January 2011 the number of beef cattle in the state was down 660,000 head from the year before, to 4.4m.

These are signs of hope. Last year Texas was gripped by its worst drought in more than a century. Direct agricultural losses were estimated at $5.2 billion; cities and towns scrambled to keep their reservoirs from running dry. Lubbock, for example, got just 5.1 inches (13cm) of rain all last year. As the state comptroller’s office noted in February, that was less than a quarter of the usual amount, and about the average annual rainfall of Khartoum. Much of the state is still under severe, extreme, or exceptional drought conditions, but rains in the winter and spring have eased conditions somewhat.

The fundamental problem, however, remains unchanged: a booming population needs more water. According to the state water-development board, demand is projected to grow by 22% by 2060. The same worry is shared across much of the arid, growing West.

As with energy, the only options are to find more or use less. Amy Hardberger, a law professor at Texas Tech University, worries that people are too concerned about the supply side and too confident that technology can rise to the task. The reality, she explains, is that the state’s water supply is either already spoken for or too hard to get at. Farmers who try to pipe in water from faraway counties are attacked as bad neighbours; desalinating ocean water uses vast amounts of energy and is prohibitively expensive.

Conservation, then, is still the most appealing approach. Greg Flores, vice-president for public affairs at the San Antonio Water System, explains that the city has whittled its average consumption from more than 200 gallons per person per day in the 1980s to about 149 today; 116 is the target for 2016. With that end in view the city has distributed high-efficiency toilets, retrofitted taps and showerheads in city-centre hotels, and intervened directly with big buyers. In one case, it helped pay to equip a Coca-Cola factory with bottle-washing equipment that uses pressurised air rather than water.

Even greater efforts will be needed in the future; the city is growing fast. The San Antonio system is building a desalination plant for nearby brackish water, which is less expensive to treat than seawater. And last year the city solicited competitive bids from private developers for future water projects. That way, Mr Flores explains, the developers rather than the city will have to argue with adjacent areas about permissions. All of this, he expects, will lead to rate increases. That should be easier to swallow as public awareness of the problem grows. And with another hot summer looming, the public is taking notice.