Drought Over, But Texas Water Woes Remain

A four-year drought ended in Texas last year, and now the state is almost universally out of drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. But water challenges have not evaporated in the Lone Star State.

“The amounts of water stored in the ground are still greatly below normal,” The Fort Stockton Pioneer recently reported, citing scientists at the University of Texas at Austin. “The analysis of satellite data indicated that the state lost 84 million acre-feet of water during the peak of the drought, but had only recovered about 10 percent as of January 2015.”

How bad are current conditions?

"We're short about three Lake Meads," said Gordon L. Wells, an Earth scientist, per the report. Arizona's Lake Mead holds about 26 million acre-feet of water

“As another means of comparison, Texans in 2012 used just over 16 million acre-feet of water for all purposes, according to the Texas Water Development Board, so the stubborn storage deficit detected by the satellites represents almost five years' worth of the water used in the state,” the report said.

Population growth and climate change is putting additional stress on the region. When the drought ended, official state Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon levelled with residents, per The Texas Tribune, about ongoing uncertainties. He said that although the state may stay wet in the coming months, Texas is not off the hook forever.

"There's reason for optimism and hope. There's also this certainty: Sooner or later, drought will return to Texas. And if we break the hydro-illogical cycle, each drought makes us better able to deal with the next,” he said.

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