Summary #2: Lubbock water

1. Many eyes on Lubbock’s water

Summary

The article by Blackburn (2008) referred to issues related to water supply sources for Lubbock city and neighbor cities. The author claimed that Lubbock city could offer water supply contracts to out-of-city customers by attracting grant money for expensive water projects. However, the city should account for issues that it may affect the precious commodity of the city. Most of Lubbock's water supply comes from the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, a group formed 50 years ago with 10 other Panhandle communities to build and provide drinking water from Lake Meredith. Thereby, Lubbock has contracts with Shallowater and the Reese Redevelopment Authority providing the equivalent of 5 percent of what the city consumes each year. Other contracts are with Buffalo Springs and Ransom Canyon communities, Littlefield, Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District, and residents around Lake Alan Henry. According to the author, existing customers can use up to 3,600 acre feet of water while Lubbock's supplement for each year is 42,000 acre feet of water. However, the fact that water resources have become more scarce and the adjacent cities, such as Wolfforth and Abernathy, do not want to be dependent completely on Lubbock's supply, makes the city's water projects encounter difficulties. The article concludes that state and federal grant groups tend to support large groups of governments rather than a project that benefits a single city. Thereby, Lubbock should find additional water resources to keep its key role in water supply for the region. (D.P.)

Reference

Blackburn, E. (2013, June 08). Many eyes on Lubbock's water. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved on September 05, 2013 from http://lubbockonline.com/stories/060808/loc_287908754.shtml

2. Summary

This article points out that the City of Lubbock must carefully evaluate several water supply alternatives and select the best one, since water supply project is a major purchase. Three projects underway are indicated in this article (i.e. Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (CRMWA) Roberts County Well Field Expansion, Bailey County Well Field Development and Park Irrigation Conversion to Groundwater). However, the problems of drought impact to Lake Meredith and growing population have forced the City to find a new water supply. After detailed evaluation of several water supply proposals, Lake Alan Henry with the estimation of $240 million is considered as the most sustainable and cost effective water supply. In order to reduce the cost of the largest infrastructure project ever initiated, the City of Lubbock is seeking federal and state grant and loan programs with lower interest rates. For the first period, the City was successful in securing $22 million for the Lake Alan Henry project from Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) with a 2% lower loan interest than other programs. Furthermore, the City will continue to pursue additional TWDB assistance opportunities for the project. However, wise use and conservation of available water would also be always the best way to have sustainable water supplies. (C.L.)

Reference:

Lake Alan Henry and Other Water Supply Projects, Water Conservation and Education Department. Retrieved on Sep 5th, 2013 from http://www.mylubbock.us/docs/default-source/storm-water-management/developing-water-supply-alternatives-for-lubbock.pdf?sfvrsn=0

3. Water increasingly important in environmental perceptions

The author of this blog post informs us that the 6^th biennial survey of Peoples’ Perceptions of the State of the New Zealand Environment evaluated peoples’ perceptions of a number of environmental issues, like air quality, national parks, native plants and animals, etc. The main concerns of New Zealanders are water and water pollution, and the majority of people taking the survey responded that land farming is the principal cause of damage to freshwater. Dr. Joy, the first expert commenting on the survey, points to the existing confusion, as while people’s perception of environmental management has improved, the actual state of lakes and rivers has declined. Fenemor, the second expert, adds that people’s perception is highly influenced by the media exposure on a particular issue. Whereas years ago chemicals were thought to have the main impact on freshwater, now farming is exposed as more responsible for pollution. Finally, Davies-Colley shows little surprise that freshwater is the primary environmental issue, and observes that blaming livestock farming has actually been a steadily growing trend over the past decade. (-S.M.)

Reference:

Water increasingly important in environmental perceptions. (2011, September 29). [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2011/09/29/water-increasingly-important-in-environmental-perceptions/

4. A “war over water”

According to this article, regulation on water in west Texas made many farmers and landowners outraged. More than 100 of them were gathered in February 2012 in the public hearing held by the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District (HPUWCD). Although they made a plea for removing the restrictions, at the end it turned out to have no effect other than a two-year amendment in which the restrictions will not be enforced and no penalties for violation would be charged.  – N.K.

Reference:

        Pelt, T. (2012, Feb.) Farmers, Landowners protest new water restrictions, KCBD.

         Retrieved on Sept 5th 2012 from: http://www.kcbd.com/story/16983979/farmers-landowners-protest-proposed-water-conservation-rules

5. Summary

In this article (Young, 2013), the city of Lubbock rebuts the accusations of 24/7 Wall Street article naming the City of Lubbock as number one city running out of water in the USA (Sauter & Hess, 2013). The rebuttal covers each one of the accusations made in the article and the write up below is a summary of the rebuttals. The city's rebuttals to the objections to rate increase were that the city has not gone through a water rate increase since 2006, but has instead encouraged water conservation for over a decade. On the city being the number one city running out of water, the city said it has a strategic plan to supply water to the city of Lubbock for the next hundred years. This strategic water plan was adopted by the city in February 2013; the plan details usage of the different sources of water that the city owns; the different sources were wells in Robert County, Bailey County and Lake Alan Henry. The City also highlighted some misleading statements in the Wall Street article; the article mentioned White River’s lake going dry, but the city clarified that there is no correlation between the White river levels and Lubbock’s water supply as the White River is not a water source for the city. The city also went on to say that the city meets about 80% of its demand through ground water and also said the Lake Alan Henry was not currently at a dangerously low level. (R.S.)

Young, Adam (2013, Aug 17). City disputes 24/7 Wall Street claims that Lubbock is running out of water. Retrieved on September 05, 2013 from: http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-08-16/city-disputes-247-wall-street-claims-lubbock-running-out-water#.Uij4RtK-ris

Sauter, A. and Hess, E.M. (2013, Aug 1). Nine Cities Running Out Of Water. 24/7 Wall Street. Retrieved on September 05, 2013 from: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/08/01/nine-cities-running-out-of-water/#ixzz2dyjOAVH2

6. A summary of “City of Lubbock disputes water shortage claims” which was posted on Aug 16, 2013 9:55 AM by KCBD Staff.

At the very beginning, this article has mentioned the alarming news that Lubbock is listed as the first city that is running out of water which is published by the 24/7 Wall Street company. And then they have debated against it and mentioned some facts that the Lubbock area has been in the "state of exceptional drought since 2011” but that it is not true it is going to run out of water.

Some evidence has been provided as following:

First, for over a decade the city of Lubbock just has been encouraged to conserve water. Second, “Lubbock adopted its current Strategic Water Supply Plan in February 2013” which can supply the city water for at least 100 years.  Third, though White River is running out of water, this is not going to affect the City of Lubbock a lot. For the city’s water largely depends on the underground water, such as the Ogallala Aquifer, one of Lubbock’s groundwater sources, instead of the surface water, which will not be greatly affected by the rainfall. Lake Alan Henry, “which is approximately 70% full,” is not at dangerously low levels. In short, they rejected the conclusion that Lubbock is running out of water. (M.F.)

Reference:

City of Lubbock. (2013, August 16). City of Lubbock disputes water shortage claims. KCBD.

http://www.kcbd.com/story/23156106/city-of-lubbock-disputes-water-shortage-claims

7. Water Consumption Down for City of Lubbock in July

In the article titled “Water Consumption Down for City of Lubbock in July”, the author mentioned the fact that “According to the City of Lubbock Water Department, water consumption is currently down when comparing July from each of the last few years.”

According to Aubrey Spear with the Water Department, the restrictions, the water rate and the rain are the main reasons for this situation of “about the five year average at this time”.

At first, the city of Lubbock is in “stage one water restrictions” and “has been for a full year” after “Lake Alan Henry went online”.

Second, most of the residents have formed the habit of conserving water, and still there is another reason for the people to be interested in water conservation which is the recent Lubbock Power & Light rate increase, according to Aubrey Spear with the Water Department.

Third, the rules for stage one water restrictions have been described, such as the amount of irrigating water per week, the exact time of the people to water. The irrigation schedules are based on the last digit of the home; it’s fine for drinking  at any time of the week. And Aubrey Spear suggested “twice a week watering restrictions” would be well. (M.F.)

Reference

Water consumption down for City of Lubbock in July. (2013, August 20). EverythingLubbock.com.

http://www.everythinglubbock.com/story/water-consumption-down-for-city-of-lubbock-in-july/d/story/Z6n1RusK2UaG8G5PCqkfig

8. Summary of the article “Reynolds: Give Lubbock water another look before buying bottles”

The author is named Jakob Reynolds, and he said he has lived in Lubbock all his life. He points out that "Frankly, the tap water in Lubbock tastes rather bad. However, an interesting characteristic I recently discovered is our water actually tastes rather good with ice in it.” “Cold Lubbock tap water is almost indistinguishable from its bottled counterparts,” he believed. And this is good news for those citizens in Lubbock, he thinks.

First of all, it is obvious that Lubbock’s citizens can save their money by not buying that bottled water. Secondly, the author noted that city water is cleaner than bottled water. The author mentions that “city water can contain no traces of confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria, according to EPA. But on the other hand, in fact, bottled water is allowed to contain a certain amount of coliform bacteria.” Thirdly, another disadvantage of bottled water is some of plastic bottles can be toxic. And those bottles may have polluted water in them, the author pointed out.

According to the author, when we are thirsty sometimes, we should just buy a reusable aluminum water bottle and drink the water we have already paid for from our tap. “You’ll definitely save a lot of money and help the environment in the process,” the author believes.

Reference

Reynolds, J. (2013, Sept. 5). Reynolds: Give Lubbock water another look before buying bottles. Retrieved from http://www.dailytoreador.com/opinion/article_19358b88-d446-11e0-9382-001a4bcf6878.html

9. Summary of the article “Lubbock’s water crisis, how did we get here?”

This article, “Lubbock’s water crisis, how did we get here?” is published by Abby Reed in KCBD News Channel. The writer mainly introduces reducing present water sources and finding new water supply sources in Lubbock, Texas. During past years, Lubbock has had three water supply sources, yet Lake Meredith, which is one main water supply source, cannot be utilized as a water source anymore because of the drought and the lack of precipitation. According to Mayor Tom Martin, Lubbock has water restrictions and shortage; however can still have water because of using a new water supply source, Lake Alan Henry, for several years. The mayor is worried about finishing water in Lake Alan Henry, but the city keeps developing new water supply sources. Thus, the city will not have a water problem for several years. (MK)

Reference

Reed, A. (2013, Feb. 9). Lubbock’s water crisis, how did we get here?. KCBD News Channel. Retrieved on Sep. 5, 2013 from http://www.kcbd.com/story/16903788/lubbocks-water-crisis-how-did-we-get-here

10. The summary of water shortage shaping up as crisis

In this article, the author announced that water shortage problem is not only for those who consumed water a lot, such as farmers, but also for the whole cities. The article mainly mentioned the water problem in the Lower Rio Grande, and the author said, "the area faced the worst drought in decades." Then, he described the situation of the area, about how the main industry works, and how people live there. So, we can understand that this is an agricultural area and agriculture needs water badly. He said, “there are a few wells, but they tend to be very salty.” Although some districts lack water, some districts are still in an acceptable condition. However, what are they supposed to do if they really have a water crisis? They buy some water from Mexico and the other states. Therefore, the U.S. government even forced Mexico to release water because they said Mexico owed them water. Moreover, the article listed every condition of the area in Texas, so we would have basic information about it. (SYH)

 

Burns, R. (2013, Mar. 12). Texas crop, weather for March 12, 2013. Agrilife. Retrieved from http://today.agrilife.org/2013/03/12/texas-crop-weather-95/

11. Summary

This article is written from the point of view of the mining industry, which uses scarce water in mining projects in South America. The author says that perceived water shortage problems are crucial, because they have caused many mines to be closed down. Local communities fear that the diversion of water for mining will threaten their use of it for agriculture, so they pressure the government to stall or cancel the mining operations. The author feels that most of the problems caused by mining are historical, and that the mining companies have found other water, or are using recycled water, so they are no longer threatening the fresh water supply. But he feels that the media is unfair about this, and stirs up people's perception of water shortage, thus endangering the projects. Finally, he mentions desalination, which is expensive and has its own environmental hazard, but is sometimes used by the mining companies. (TL)

Moore, M.A.  (2012, Apr. 19). Water problems - real and perceived. Mining, People and the Environment. Retrieved on September 7, 2013, from

http://www.mpe-magazine.com/special-features/water-problems-real-and-perceived?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=print_friendly

12. Summary of "New phases lining up in Lubbock's evolving water strategy: Roberts County well field, Lake Alan Henry pipeline capacity expansions on drawing board"

This article mentions how Lubbock has tapped Mother Nature’s water, how that is constantly changing ,and the plans for capacity expansions to well fields in Roberts County and the Lake Henry pipeline which are on the drawing board.

Lubbock’s director of water resources recalled the city’s more than 100-year history of moving from one water source to the next in addressing the City. He said, “There is no perpetual water supply that lasts forever, anywhere. So we have to always be planning for where the next water supply is coming from.” As a historic point in 1992, 87% of Lubbock’s water came from Lake Meredith, with about 13% coming from city’s Bailey County well field. But now in 2013, Bailey and Roberts counties served as the city’s main water supply, with Lake Alan Henry accounting for 2% after its 60 mile pipeline opened in July. With current infrastructure, Lake Alan Henry water should provide about 7.5 million gallons of water per day and provide for 20% of the city’s water usage.

We only take the yield such that we can take water from it in perpetuity, he said. (JAPC)

Young, A. (2013, March 9). New phases lining up in Lubbock's evolving water strategy. Retrieved on Sep 5, 2013 from http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2013-03-09/new-phases-lining-lubbocks-evolving-water-strategy#.UiimU8akol8

13. Second Summary

The Ogallala Aquifer has been rapidly dwindling. The article ‘Ogallala Aquifer in Texas Panhandle Suffers Big Drop’ reports some figures that show how serious the problem is. The figures, covering a 16-county area stretching from south of Lubbock to Amarillo, show that wells have dropped an average of 1.87 feet from 2012 to 2013. This is one of the five or ten worst drops in 60 years. The main cause of this drop is that the drought that has affected the area since 3 years ago has made farmers pump more water to make up for the lack of rain. A drop of 1.8 feet could cause some farmers to stop irrigating in areas where the aquifer is thin, but in areas where it is thick the drop does not count as a serious problem. (H.S.) 

Galbraith, K. (2012, May 22). Ogallala Aquifer in Texas Panhandle Suffers Big Drop. StateImpact. Retrieved on 9/5/2013 from http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/05/22/ogallala-aquifer-in-texas-panhandle-suffers-big-drop/

14. Summary on the article titled “The Ogallala Aquifer, an important water resource, is in trouble”

Based on a study over four years by researchers from Kansas State University, the article “The Ogallala Aquifer, an important water resource, is in trouble” by Karen Dillon, of the Kansas City Star, points out the importance of this water resource, the dangerous situation that it is in, and the suitable or necessary actions that should be taken specially by farmers to control the situation. Furthermore, the author highlights that many farmers are aware of the situation and they support the legislation that is sponsored by Gov. Sam Brownback to “keep the lake recharging at a rate that doesn’t allow the resource to dry up”.

At the end, using the exact words, “Society has an opportunity now to make changes with tremendous implications for future sustainability and livability”, of David Steward, lead author of the study, Ms. Dillon is trying to remind the society about their responsibility on this matter.  (CD)

References

Dillon, K. (2013, September, 1). The Ogallala Aquifer, an important water resource, is in trouble. Kansas City Star.  Retrieved on September, 5, 2013 from http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/01/4452173/the-ogallala-aquifer-an-important.html

15. Water use in the United States:

The article mentions that water has different uses in our life. It illustrates how our nation's underground and surface water are vitally important to our everyday life. Based on a report in the national Atlas of the United States, the use of water in the U.S. has changed with time, and the most important factor which affects our water source is human activities. In the 1950s and 1980s there was a steady increase in the United States’ population. Thus, scientists expected the increase of water usage with the increase of population, but it did not happen because of the increased awareness of the need for water and the changes in technology. Furthermore, the article explains five methods of water use including thermoelectric, irrigation, public, and other uses of water. Moreover, in each section it is mentioned how much water we consume for each of those usages. Finally, it provides two tables that encompass data regarding water usage between 1950 to 2000. (S.H.)

Reference

Water use in the United States. (2013, Jan, 28) nationalatlas.gov, US Government.

http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/water/a_wateruse.html

16. A summary on article title on “Ogallala aquifer: Could critical water source run dry?”

This article by environmental science and engineering experts has shown that underground water is going down enormously due to overusage of water for agricultural productions. Their study was in the western part of Kansas, which is the largest wheat growing part of the USA, pumping water from the Ogallala aquifer. The researchers have mentioned that current water policies have not impacted significant reduction in ground water and current trend of water usage can cause loss of water within 5 decades. The report said that limitation of water in these days can be a significant problem for food production but also that may extend our future water usage time for more decades. According to the study if water usage will be reduced by 20 percent, that can increase our agricultural production time into 2070. However consumption of fresh water is still not in a dangerous situation. The research group has explored thousands of related data and reports during the last four year period to make this report. (S.G.)

Gillam, C. (2013, August 27). Ogallala aquifer: Could critical water source run dry”, Reuters. 

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0827/Ogallala-aquifer-Could-critical-water-source-run-dry