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Author
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Topic: The Drought is Not Over!
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freewill
Member Posts: 211
From: Wimberley Area
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted September 27, 2009 08:00 PM
 
The drought is not over! The recent rains may have lulled some of us into a state of euphoria, thinking everything is back to normal. It is not! According to the HTGCD, Hays County remains in a “Drought Stage - Critical”. The US Drought Monitor as of September 24, 2009 reports a slight improvement for our area from Exceptional to Extreme Drought. The situation is still quite serious. Some scientists believe that it may take years for the present drought to completely subside. Some are beginning to believe that drought is the normal condition for Central Texas only occasionally interrupted by brief periods of wet conditions. If you examine the historical data and graphs, this makes some sense. The recent rains sure made everything green-up and may have saved some trees. The jury is still out on whether a wetter trend is in place. Of the rain that falls, only a small portion of it ever gets down to the aquifers and it can take hundreds, if not thousands of years to make the journey. According to David Baker, Director of the WVWA, scientific testing has determined that water from Jacob’s Well had been in the aquifer for over 2000 years. We still need to take extraordinary steps to conserve water. The worst drought in Texas history lasted from roughly 1947 to 1956. Due to increasing uncontrolled development and its added water use, the effect of this drought may actually be worse. If we never had a drought our aquifers would still be in trouble. The science proves it and to deny it, is folly. I have talked to many landowners in Hays County that have had their wells “go dry”. That has necessitated re-drilling their wells deeper (if possible) and/or “trucking-in” water, two very expensive measures that cannot go on forever. Some of these ranchers and farmers were formerly in denial about the problem. Now they are trying to understand these dynamics and are asking why they see more and more subdivisions with homes sitting on quarter acre lots with lush lawns being built daily, while their wells and livelihood are drying up. Old-fashioned greed and vanity are in play there. Some day, in the not-to-distant future, if bottled water becomes a necessity rather than a luxury, legislation will pass to really limit growth in our water poor area. The developers and real estate interests will fight with all their might and money to prevent this. So far, they have been successful in building or buying alliances with our politicians to prevent effective legislation and enforcement.
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Tbaseflug
Member Posts: 193
From: Wimberley, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2007
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posted September 27, 2009 08:31 PM
I seriously do not think that the developers are solely to blame here - I know (at least 3 personally) "ranchers" - who are wealthy, retired laywers, doctors and judges who live near by and have 100-200 head of cattle - all so that they can play "rancher" into retirement - with no need for the cattle or the money - they just like the idea of telling everyone that they are real Texas "ranchers" and I cannot believe how much water it takes to sustain their livestock through the summer - not to mention that one of those I emntioned drilled several additional wells so that their grandkids could swim in a simulated lake - so my point is that the problem goes beyond new development and is pervasive to the individual mindset
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Miss Chris
Member Posts: 294
From: Wimberley, Texas
Registered: Nov 2006
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posted September 28, 2009 09:13 AM
I agree with both of your observations-it's developers being greedy and it's individuals who don't care about what they do and are just interested in instant gratification. It's discouraging to see how many people choose not to remember the droughts we have had just so they continue down the merry road of excess. The older I get the more I wonder if it's just human nature to not think about remifications until it's too late and what they love has been destroyed.
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freewill
Member Posts: 211
From: Wimberley Area
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted September 28, 2009 10:29 AM
Very good points “Tbaseflug”. It’s kind of like drugs, if there were no addicts/users, there’d be no dealers. I didn’t mean to excuse the wasteful citizenry, no mater if they have a quarter acre of hundreds.
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Reddog
Member Posts: 396
From: dripping springs, tx, usa
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted September 28, 2009 04:07 PM
Two sides of the same coin. Greed would be the wholesale rejection of common sense and decency to attempt to provide a limited resource to a great number of people at the expense of others, a Developer. Selfishness would be the attempt at providing more of a limited resourse to yourself at the expense of others, an individual. But it's essentially the same thing, me me me.
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bren
Member Posts: 56
From: wimberley, tx
Registered: Feb 2009
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posted September 28, 2009 10:04 PM
Exactly ...... very well put, reddog.
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XIIthMan
Member Posts: 309
From: Wimberley, TX
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted September 29, 2009 10:45 AM
Tragedy of the Commons
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Miss Chris
Member Posts: 294
From: Wimberley, Texas
Registered: Nov 2006
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posted September 29, 2009 01:28 PM
Please join the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association and singer song writer Eliza Gilkyson for the First Annual Hill Country Water Celebration at the Salt Lick on Oct. 18th to support Wimberley Valley Watershed Association. http://visitwimberley.com/water/ A good example of the greed of a few and the heroes that help us retain the natural beauty around us can be seen on the new Ken Burns series about National Parks.
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Reddog
Member Posts: 396
From: dripping springs, tx, usa
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted September 29, 2009 01:40 PM
XIIth, Ayn Rand is ashamed of you.Enlightened self interest, emphasis on enlightened, maximizes profit by extending the profitable period as long as possable.
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Reddog
Member Posts: 396
From: dripping springs, tx, usa
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted October 07, 2009 04:16 PM
I'm happy to report that our Sept. YTD rainfall total exceeds all of 2008, not that it's much to brag about.
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jerry
Member Posts: 98
From:
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted October 07, 2009 07:22 PM
What a miracle the greening up has been starting 9/9/09. Even seasoned professionals are amazed. Unfortunately, the future of some of our trees may not be so bright so if you can; plant a good sustainable native tree this fall and decide what to do with the part of your lawn that really doesn't need all that high maintenance grass. Do leave enough groundcover to stop erosion and please don't cover all the ground with paving.
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