Research Proposal on Lubbock's water----Can Liu
The water crisis
is a common problem that has happened everywhere because of the growth of
population, farming, contamination and so on. No exception, The City of Lubbock is also facing a severe water crisis.
Lake Meredith has been the primary water source for years for Lubbock (Reed,
2012) until 2011. As Lake Meredith has completely dried
up, the water crisis has been paid more attention than ever before. In 2013,
the main source of water for Lubbock comes from two well fields in Roberts
County and Bailey County and Lake Alan Henry. The Lubbock Water Department has
acclaimed that the City is constantly exploring water sources for Lubbock and
they have made plans for the residents for the next 100 years (Lubbock Water
Department, 2013). However, using water wisely is always the best way to
protect our water sources.
There are a lot
of articles discussing the solution for
Lubbock's water crisis. "Lubbock residents use 190 gallons per person each
day. If we can cut it off to 170 gallons per person, not only can we save money
but also we can extend the usage of our water sources for several more years"
(KCBD News, 2005). Deputy City Manager Tom Adams says, "If we didn't do
anything, it's possible by 2015, we would need a new source. But if we can
conserve just a little bit, we can push that to 2020, 2025, even 2030"
(KCBD News, 2005, par. 2). Because of the lack of actions to save water, this
prediction already came true in 2013 when we started the new supply of Lake
Alan Henry. Thus Adams, from The Water Advisory Commission, proposed a rate
structure in the way we are charged for water. Adams says, "The more you
use it stays the same rate. The next step would be an increasing rate structure
where the more you use the higher the price is" (KCBD News, 2005, par. 3).
This efficient way to address the water crisis was adopted by many cities such
as Tucson, Portland and Denver.
Unfortunately, it is confirmed by the City of Lubbock that the city had
not applied a water rate structure since 2006 (KCBD News, 2013). "The City
of Lubbock is on a block rate system and it has been encouraging water
conservation for many decades and will still stay on the water conservation
plan" (KCBD News, 2013).
New technology of recycling water may also
plays a crucial role for solving the water crisis in the future. Rainwater from
NASA mentioned that the Johnson Space Center [JSC] has spent years trying to
find a new way to recycle water for long term space flight (KCBD News, 2005). Rainwater
says, "They're trying to look for other means that don't have to use up
the filters as much. So what our work here has been focusing on is biological
means to treat the water where you essentially use microorganisms to degrade
the organic components of our urine" (2005, par. 12). This new technology
could be used in the City of Lubbock to tackle the water crisis. Lubbock's
wastewater treatment plant manager Mary Gonzales says, "We treat about 21
million gallons per day" (KCBD News, 2005, par. 13). Therefore we could
add oxygen to accelerate the bacteria to eat those organic materials in waste
water and create a new renewable source of water for the City of Lubbock (KCBD
news, 2005). If we can use the massive wind energy in Texas in waste water
treatment plants, we will be able to reduce significantly the high cost of
recycling water and make this plan come true in the near future.
When everybody is trying to figure
out the best way of dealing with Lubbock's water crisis, a proposal that leases
lands to a fracking company from Fort Worth was passed during a city council
meeting in March, 2012 (Gonzalez, 2012). However, this big thing for the City
was not presented to any town hall meetings for the public to discuss it.
Ellysa Gonzalez said, "They presented no opportunities for public
discussion on the matter. It was like it was a back room deal" (Gonzalez,
2012, par. 11). After talking to a few people, Gonzalez found out that not one
of them knew that the city had already signed a contract about the fracking
operation. “A lot of people we have talked with do not know that the city of
Lubbock leased out these lands to a company that plans to do fracking on it,” she
said (Gonzalez, 2012, par. 7). “It’s hydraulic fracturing of the underground
bedrock to extract oil and natural gas.” Moreover, an online petition has been
posted by Sandra Manzari, a Lubbock resident, to propose a vote by the
residents about the fracking (Gonzalez, 2012).
“I teach my son that we are a democracy,” Manzari stated in an email. “A
government for the people by the people, yet this city council voted to have
fracking in the city and I never got a say” (Gonzalez, 2012, par. 13). Thus, we
did a survey during this study to find out how much people know about the water
crisis and the fracking problems in Lubbock. Manzari claims the public to be
uninformed. “Something as important as this should be a vote by the people not
a little city council meeting,” she said in an email. “We are not deciding on
if we need more parking meters or not” (Gonzalez, 2012, par.15). Water
contamination, excessive use of water and air contamination by fracking are
highly related to every resident in Lubbock (Magelssen, 2012). Thus,
every resident has rights to be informed and vote to make their own decisions.
In order to evaluate Lubbock residents' opinions about the
water crisis and fracking, we did a survey on campus asking how much they knew about
fracking and if they worried about Lubbock's water sources. Based on the literature review, it seems
that most people didn't know much about fracking and the huge environmental impacts
on water sources by fracking. Furthermore, it is also likely that engineering
education level will affect the ideas of people on fracking and its impacts. Since
there were much fewer females in engineering fields, it was safe to conclude
that males would tend to have more knowledge about fracking and the water
crisis than females did.
Consequently, males would worry
more about the impacts of fracking to water sources and they would tend to be
more active to save water and avoid any waste of water. As a consequence, we believed that knowing
more about fracking would make people worried more about the water supply in
Lubbock and thus more people would tend to blame the oil drillers. [C.L.]
Gonzalez, E. (2012, Aug. 6). Should we vote on fracking. Retrieved on Oct 3, 2013 from http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2012-08-06/should-we-vote-fracking#.UnHPPY0jK4Q
KCBD News. (2005, Nov. 5). Lubbock's Water Crisis: Keys to the Future. Retrieved on Sep 26, 2013 from
Lubbock Water Department. Retrieved
on Sep 26, 2013 from
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