TX - Driest 9 Months Ever, Hottest June Ever - And Water Well Drillers Pursue Dwindling Groundwater

[hatrack]

EDIT

Most of the pressure on groundwater is coming along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly around fast-growing cities such as Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio where development is gobbling up ranchland and sucking up groundwater, Kaiser said. "You're now getting 10-, 20-acre ranchettes where you had 1,000-acre ranches," he said.

Weaver suspects that's part of the problem around his 24-acre property, where four new subdivisions have sprouted in recent years. "Twenty years ago, we thought we were moving to the country. The city has come to us," he said.

Others say fracking for natural gas wells is also a drain. But Kaiser said all those new residential wells and the surge in natural gas wells in Texas are a drop in the bucket compared with agricultural use, which accounts for about 80 percent of all groundwater pumped annually. "The Texas Water Development Board did a study a few years back and found the impact of all that natural gas fracking would have less than a 10 percent impact on aquifer levels," he said. Watts says the impact of fracking has been noticeable. "They use a lot of water," he said.

"But so have subdivisions where they put two wells on every lot so they'll have enough for the landscaping," he said. "The aquifer levels are a lot lower than they were 40 years ago." "It's people that have changed things. It comes down to you, me and our wants," Watts said.

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http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/23/3241673/drought-is-taking-toll-on-texas.html

[TxVietVet]

1. It's really dry here. The pine forests are kindling ready to burn.

My yard is almost dead. it's bad.

[Angry Dragon]

2. What part of the state do you live??

[TxVietVet]

3. North of Houston.

[Angry Dragon]

4. I remember the first time I went to Texas in the 1970's

and drove down the east side and was surprised
by all the evergreens. Made me think of northern Minnesota

[TxVietVet]

7. Here it Texas, it's called "the Piney Woods".

A lot of them are tree farms. Lots of national forests and wilderness areas in this part of East Texas. It's rural and redneck.

[txlibdem]

5. K&R

[kestrel91316]

6. Wow, how horrible. And just imagine how bad it would be if

global warming were real and actually happening!