Category: News
Clearwater Announces 13th Annual Water Symposium
The Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District is hosting its 13th annual Bell County Water Symposium. This year’s event will be held November 14, 2013 beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Central Texas Council of Governments Building at 2180 N. Main Street, Belton, TX. Co-sponsors include Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service; Lloyd Gosselink Attorneys at Law; HALFF Associates; and Bell County.
Keynote presentation by Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas State Climatologist and Regents Professor at Texas A&M University, will highlight the day’s activities. Dr. Nielsen-Gammon’s weather-related work involves jet streams, extreme rainfall events, and land and sea breezes. His air quality research includes field forecasting support, numerical simulation, and diagnostic analysis of ozone events in Houston and Dallas for the Texas Air Quality Studies in 2000 and 2005-6. Dr. Nielsen-Gammon has also worked on drought monitoring and forecasting, air pollution climatology, and improvements to the climate data record. He teaches courses in weather analysis, weather forecasting, climatology, and atmospheric dynamics.
Experts: Drought Could Drag on For 15 More Years
Experts predict above-average temperatures and lower-than-normal moisture amounts will be seen in the months ahead — and possibly as much as 15 more years.
John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist and a professor with Texas A&M University’s department of atmospheric sciences, said long-term temperature patterns from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are comparable to those from what he considers the worst drought of record, in the 1950s. For that reason, he estimates Texas’ drought susceptibility could continue another five to 15 years.
Update on the USFWS Potential Listing of The Salado Salamander as Threatened and Endangered
The Stakeholders of Bell County recently met the September 19th deadline established by USFWS for comments related to the six month extension before they make their final decision on the Salado Salamander. The official comments were prepared by Mike Gershon, and focused on responding to USFWS’s solicitation of additional data regarding the Salado Salamander proposed listing pursuant of the Endangered Species Act. The solicitation for comments specified three key issues and associated categories of information in the Federal Register notice published on August 20, 2013.
Despite Rain Texas Commissioner Pushes Water Conservation
Despite the rains Central Texas saw last week, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner is pushing water conservation. Todd Staples is reminding people of the critical need to continue conserving water in order to delay the need for more stringent water restrictions. “This is a crisis, make no mistake,” said AG Commissioner Staples. “This drought that we are in is making substantial changes to economies rippled throughout Texas.”
New Texas Law Forbids HOAs to Ban Some Water Conservation Methods
Homeowners who want to try more conservative landscaping — and maybe save some money on their water bill. A new state law prohibits homeowner associations from outlawing drought-tolerant landscaping, rain collection and composting. An association can set reasonable regulations and require homeowners to submit landscape plans for approval, according to the law.
