Category: News
Recent Rains Help, But Most Of Texas Is Still Very Thirsty
Water has always been important to Texas, but perhaps never more than now, with the state attracting more and more industries, with the energy sector running at full speed and with agriculture – as always – leading the way. But Texas faces numerous water issues, and none may be bigger than the drought which has enveloped much of the state for years.
Recent rains have lessened some of the drought’s impact in several areas, but overall, Texas is still hurting for water — about 70 percent of the state is in some sort of drought status ranging from moderate to exceptional, the highest rank.
John Nielsen-Gammon, professor atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University who also serves as the State Climatologist, knows more about the state’s past – wet or dry – than anyone. He travels the state on a regular basis speaking to various groups about the drought, and the most often-asked question is, “When will the drought end?”
New TWDB Daily Groundwater Levels Website Launched
AUSTIN – Today Texans are more aware than ever of the importance of groundwater. As part of ongoing efforts to synthesize and communicate water-related data to scientists, policy makers and the public, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) today announced its Water Data for Texas website now includes groundwater data. The website has been a source of information on reservoirs and drought since November 2012.
TWDB’s Recorder Well Program has more than doubled in the past 15 years, partially because more groundwater conservation districts are participating in the program. TWDB currently maintains 184 recorders in 79 counties. In addition to the TWDB network, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Edwards Aquifer Authority also maintain their own networks of recorder wells in the state. All of these data, including the U.S. Geological Survey and Edwards Aquifer Authority networks, are now available at waterdatafortexas.org.
Texas Water Report: Going Deeper for the Solution
Texas Water Conservation Association 10th annual Texas Water Day in Washington, D.C.
The Texas Water Conservation Association (TWCA), through its Federal Affairs Committee and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), has scheduled the 10th (Tenth) Annual Texas Water Day, which will take place February 4-6, 2014, in Washington, D.C.
Texas Congressional Members, key Congressional Committee Members and staff, leaders of Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and USGS, and others will come to Capitol, Room HVC-201 in the Capitol Building, to comment on our Texas priority issues and, importantly to hear from us on those issues. This is our opportunity to ask questions and for the TWCA and TWDB delegation to make requests for assistance in addressing our priority water issues.
The Congressional Reception will be held on Wednesday, February 5, 2014, at 6:00 p.m., in Room B-339 of the Rayburn House Office Building. We urge you to invite your members of Congress to attend the reception.
For more information visit www.twca.org/texas-water-day/
This article was originally posted here: http://watrnews.com/2013/12/texas-water-conservation-association-10th-annual-texas-water-day-washington-d-c/#.Ut2cJU3nbIU
New TWDB Organization Structure
There are three divisional functional units: Water Science & Conservation, Water Supply & Infrastructure, and Operations & Administration, each reporting to the Executive Administrator’s office. Robert Mace is Deputy EA for Water Science and Conservation, with both surface water and groundwater resources functional units, as well as another oriented toward conservation and innovation technologies. The roles and names in the groundwater sections we deal with regularly – Larry French, Rima Petrossian, Cindy Ridgeway, Janie Hopkins, Bryan Anderson – remain largely unchanged.
