THE WATER COOLER
FROM FACEBOOK.COM/STATESMAN
Central Texas has seen record rain this year, and the relief from extreme drought is threatening efforts to reduce water use and engineering projects across the state. Just in June, fast-growing Hays County voted to cancel a massive regional groundwater purchase deal, while Gov. Greg Abbott singled out for veto a $1 million appropriation dedicated to water conservation education grants.
Peg Fisher: The cycle here is drought/desert/flood. Always has been.
Derek Swor: The drought is anything but over. This is a great time to continue conservation efforts. One rainy season doesn’t end a drought. It’s likely Texas will experience a lot more drought with the occasional monsoon season causing major flooding, like we just experienced.
Jim Ratzman: How about we get started on building more dams and lakes for water supply? The last time we did that was 1939.
Ken Dempsey: We get a little bit of rain, and the lake comes up, and people automatically think the disaster is over. It isn’t though. This area is growing so fast, and we are putting a huge drain on natural resources. There will come a day when those resources will not be able to sustain all that we will have. There is so much water waste in this city, as there is in many others. People are more concerned about how green their lawns are, how clean their cars are or how many water parks we can have, versus making sure that we have enough water to drink.
Bill Hastings: We could start with cutting down cedar trees.
Luke Snyder: How quickly we forget.
Max Connor Robins: People are going to get too confident and use too much.