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.

This is why I pee in my backyard. Trying to help the water table.

I have a .8 gpf toilet at home it works pretty good. Very seldom do you have to double flush. The only problem is the toilet is about 300 bucks new. Not many people will pay that when you can get a toilet at Home Depot for 100 bucks.

Run off from houses in the city goes back to the creeks through storm drains. Same concept and still does not make sense.

All I know for sure is Texas is experiencing a TEN year drought especially west of I-35 - if you look at reservoir storage levels statewide 60% are at or below 50% storage capacity.


If I were a water manger for Texas I'd be down on my knees daily, and IF you believe long term weather prognosticators - we haven't yet seen the worst -

I thought that was what planning was for plan for the worst and pray for the rest.

Take a look at statewide current lake levels - just rain won't do it, first you have to recharge dry soils - then you will get some runoff - problem is groundwater isn't being recharged

http://wiid.twdb.state.tx.us/ims/resinfo/BushButton/lakeStatus.asp

The trends I see are the lakes which get treated sewage runoff(those in metromess areas) are sixty to eighty percent full - those getting naturally occurring runoff are in pretty sad shape ---

Just and Idea.

I never understood why we need more lakes?

A few years ago, I found my favorite family Sandbass spot (Hickory Creek in Oklahoma on the Red River West of Texoma) no longer produced because the Red River had silted in the mouth of the creek, and is slowly working to silt in Lake Texoma (better book a Striper Fishing trip NOW, before the lake is completely silted over in few hundred or thousand years) and the fish no longer run up Hickory Creek.

Right now, When you go out to the lake, what do you see, lots of dirt. When our farm pond and tanks (for cattle) dried up, we cleaned them up and made them DEEPER. Every lake is going to silt in eventually, and since almost all lakes in Texas are Man made, then why not use a Manual option of removing the silt and making them deeper. Use a drag line, very common in Florida where we had our ranch. A single bucket from a drag line holds enough contents to fill a swimming pool. No need for another Dam, or build another lake, just maintain the lakes we currently have. When the rains come, and they will, we will have more room to hold what nature provides us natually.

There are plenty of construction project and other areas where they can safely dispose of the dirt. Even creating islands will still result in more depth and increase water retention.

What a good Tax payer funded project, to hire many 'out of work Texans'.