Thats what Texas is currently in - Our water supply is PAST the critical stage - several power plant lakes are at or soon to be BELOW intake water stage

I have yet to see a conservation or watering ban anywhere -

The long term weather forecast over the next year is GRIM as far as rain is concerned - you think our lakes are low now? How about ANOTHER summer or two like we just had - and the high pressure bubbles Oklahoma and Texas have been under don't appear to be moving soon - 17 inches of rain RIGHT now would only put back a normal groundcharge of moisture and another 15 inches would be required to restore normal lake levels

Whats the plan? Build more lakes? That won't help until a comprehensive plan is put in place to CONSERVE and lower metromess usage - this holds true for DFW, Austin/San Antonio, Houston metromesses - our population has doubled in ten years in Texas and usage has skyrocketed --

Pray for rain

people will take notice and care when it affects you personally

See Chuck's post on drilling for natural gas.

You are right , Deep Do Do

I disagree. It's just a drought. It's not the worst on record. It'll rain. These lakes have actually been lower than this before. And as far as long term weather forecasting? I don't buy it. Kinda like predicting the the slow warmin of the planet. Nope, there's a cycle and we live in it. And really, what are we going to do about it? Rain dances? Back during the dust bowl, they paid people to set off dynamite charges over areas to "make" it rain. Surely we won't see them again. Hope this doesn't offend....... Oh and by the way, during this post, it's currently raining with the totals being more than an inch here.

I could have predicted a dry winter and so can everyone else. Don't listen to all the weather men. How often are they right. The rain will come when the cold fronts start moving through.

OK so what if? What if there is ANOTHER like last summer - and according to Texas historical weather this is the WORST drought here since records were kept -

The POINT being that metro areas are a GIANT sucking sound on the single MOST important resource the state has. Every morning toilets are flushed three times or more by over 8 million people just in DFW area, ten minute showers, running sinks for primp sessions, drinking water, water for coffee, automatic sprinklers for lawns, golf courses, leaking piping, industrial usage, office buildings, etc etc --

I expect water usage could be halved with efficient plumbing/toilets, conscious measures to use as little as possible

There is no drive for conservation - only more usage and constructing reservoirs, buying water out of state at SOME point (like in a critical drought) the taps will be running dry -- and I hope this following year isn't it - I don't think long range forecasting is all that reliable myself

Better to make plans than to be in a worse crisis.

For those who haven't noticed Dallas so called emergency plan to only tap Fork as a last resort - its has been a last resort going on two years now -

Well I hope your right about us getting the rain. As for records most everything I've read for this area says its the worst drought on record. I can only go off of what I read and hear to be true. Just type in Texas drought on google and it will pull up lots of articles about it being the worst drought ever. As for lake levels, although we are about the same level we were in 2006 we will soon surpass it. Also 2006 was the lowest Cedar Creek had ever been since its completion and first fill up in the 60's. With TCRWD pulling more water than ever this will unfortunately be an ongoing problem in the years to come. I also read that if we see one more year with low rain falls many city water supply lakes will be dry.

Claysefus, the drought may not be that severe in Longview, but you'd have a tough time convincing anyone in Robert Lee that this drought isn't the worst.

It seems only natural that those of us who spend time on the lakes and see their actual condition would be more concerned than the general public.

And lots of the general public aren't concerned. As I ride my bike to work at dark-thirty in the morning, I still pass houses where they water their yard five days a week, in spite of the fact that Fort Worth has had watering restrictions for a while now.

Its severe in Etex - Knox Lee Power plant on lake Cherokee is just about to loose cooling water due to low levels unseen in the history of Lake Cherokee- same scenario for Martin Creek, and Pirkey, three critical power plants - Lake o the Pines is also at historic low levels - Johnson Creek(Wilkes power plant) gets its make up water from Lake-o-Pines - the intake pump is now sitting a half mile from the new drought lake shore - its bad EVERYWHERE.

About half of ETex has burned this year - not necessarily a bad thing as it helps forests - but a lot of homes were lost as well.

We have wells going dry in Kerr, Kimbell, Mason, edwards counties that never went dry during the 50's according to the people that lived thru the 50's drought. Here in Mountain Home we had a toatl rain fall from sept. 2010 to sept 2011 of less than 7 inches, well guy out here that has been keeing records since he got back from WWII says that its the driest it has ever been. Is it the worst? I dont know, but its been the worst since we've lived here. Guadalupe river in Kerr county was at its lowest point since anyone can remember. They even had to close the boat ramps in town because the water level dropped so low that the ramps were no longer in the water. Water restrictions in Kerrville at at some drastic stage. Pastures are baren wastelands and winters on its way with livestock not having any pasture to get them thru the winter. We've had to sell off 90% of our stock, hay is to costly. And now my neighbor tells me it might be gettin dry pretty soon.

It would take 20 years to build a lake if you starting talking about it today. Also, should we force someone to sell their land just so we can have a new lake? People get mad at Jerry Jones for taking property for a stadium, but would you be fine taking property for a lake?

Oh no, I agree if you are on restricted water you should obey the laws. And yes I know it's bad everywhere. It may be technically the lowest rainfall on record but I can tell you I have seen Pines lower. It was in 2006. You could walk across Johnson creek. It's still three ft deep all the way across at this point. I work for Sabine mine which supplies coal to pirkey power plant and I can tell you first hand they are nowhere near shutting down due to water levels. Obama is our only real threat. Look at the water levels on Wright Patman. According to the Corps website, it is 1.5 ft ABOVE normal pool!! Yea it surprised me too. All I'm saying is that it has been raining decently here in E Texas. It's not near enough but we may just nickle and dime our way back to normal. I do feel sorry for the lake Travis folks and the OH Ivie locals. That's dramatic and I hate to see it. But if you had to bet you only pair of boots, would you bet that the lakes eventually get back to normal or would you put that money on the lakes dryin up permanently? This time 2 years ago Wright Patman was 29 ft high. It's a roller coaster. And one thing roller coasters do is go up and down.
I think God will answer the rain prayers in time. That and I like being optimistic.

Also one more question,..... What were the rainfall totals during the Dust Bowl? This was the worst drought in us history. We can't be at that point yet. I know that those conditions bordered e Texas but west and central northern Texas were all a part of that. No, I don't think current populations and consumption could handle those conditions very well. They say WE caused the dust bowl but again, I think it's the vicious weather patterns housed by our planet. Anyway, maybe there's some old timers who could fill me in on more of the dust bowl conditions.

Part of what caused the "dust bowl" was the fact all the farmers plowed their fields and the majority of the land was farm land. Dry dirt with no crop = dust bowl when the wind blew. My part of the hill country is in it's worst drought ever, yes ever, since records have been kept anyways. My area can not support another year like this current year, period!

Are there at least water restrictions in the big cities? Thats the first step that needs to be taken.

There are water restrictions in almost every town. We have been on mandantory restrictions for the last three months. Problem is getting the restrictions enforced. Cops won't do it, and the code enforcement officer doesn't want to. he's afraid he'll not be friends anymore.

You miss the POINT - CONSERVATION IF it was employed and became mandatory - we "might" not need NEW reservoirs to go dry, part of the problem we now have is that we have built so much open water lakes ponds and non-natural waterways that we actually change LOCAL climates - Texas metro areas are BEYOND their water supply capacites per capita - we build more concrete, more channelized ditches, more heat absorbing roofs - and when we DO get rains it runs off and does little to recharge groundwater.

No tree hugger here, but we DO have a finite water supply - at some point we will tip the scales if we don't wake up and smell the coffee -

Watch where the boys with deep pockets are investing right now - it isn't Gold - its water allocation - right now futures betting on buying reservoir storage capacities is like a hot potato.

Sure its gonna rain again "someday" its gonna flood again, there's gonna be more droughts, but with the population increases our state has had for the last twenty years we are at the razors edge on what the state can naturally provide.

The Brazos, Colorado, San Marcos, Guadalupe are just shells of historic flows for the last ten years or so - its possible Texas climate is changing, so again I state whats the plan? - you folks west of I-35 I feel for - Stamford, JB Thomas, OC Fisher, E.V.Spence, Twin Buttes, White River, have been almost DRY for a long time - and that seems to be an ongoing trend !!!


Look at the historic trend for Lake OH Ivie - and if you look at ANY of the lakes in Colorado basin you will see the same trends




Its not just a bad drought this year - Texas has been in a TEN YEAR DECLINE STATEWIDE --

That SUCKING sound H ross Perot warned us about isn't coming from Mexico - its coming from DFW, Houston and San Antonio metro areas

Anyone noticed its one big town from DFW to Houston along I-75? and one big town from Denton to San Antonio now along I-35?

Plano & Frisco have been on Stage I and II water restrictions for some time. Beginning 11/6, Stage III restrictions go into effect (can only water residential lawns once every other week) and other restrictions similar.

The cities (Plano-Frisco) love to enforce these restrictions, big $$'s for the general fund, and the fines can run anywhere from $250-$1,500 ea.

I believe we should have water use restrictions/policy all year, every year, regardless!

Yeah

Restrictions are hard to impose and manage.

The solution is rather simple and doesn't infringe on anyone's rights, implied or otherwise. Simply start allocating appropriate volumes of water to households and businesses and charge excess useage rates for amounts over those thresholds.

The technology and methods are available to do this now, they weren't in the past.

Obviously the provider shouldn't receive the overages so that becomes the trip wire, who gets what and how.

As someone above said....people will pay attention when it impacts them personally and when people start getting $500 water bills to keep their sidewalks clean they will either pnoy up or cut back.

Texas is switching over to 1.28 gallon toilets from 1.6 if that helps, and if you complain "well u have to flush them 3 times!" quit buying the junk the Depot sells. Its not the amount of water its a crappy brand of toilet you have. In fact you can no longer have 1.6 gallon ones shipped into the state.

One thing to remember is that the drought may not be as bad as some in the past and it might not last as long as others but the consumption rate has increased at an enormous rate over the years and that trend is likely to continue. Conservation is important to us all. I am not sure what the answer is. The lakes could fill up in a matter of days with strong rains and they could continue deminishing without it. Pray for rain!!!!!

We've been under Mandatory Water Rationing in Houston for months, now.

What blows me away are all the hoses and pumps I see going in to critically low lakes so people with lake houses can water their lawns. I was on Lake Conroe (which is 10 ft. low) this weekend and sure saw lots of pumps and hoses.

We got a letter on Cedar Creek with lakeside restrictions aswell. Problem you have is if your lakeside yard turns to dirt and we get rain you fill the lake with silt, plus if you over water lakeside the water table goes back in the lake.