Opportunities for Improving Texas Water Resources Management through the Texas Imperative and Texas Water Fund
Join Zoom Meeting
Join this presentation In-Person: BEG Building 130, VR Room 1.116C Or Via Zoom
Meeting ID: 932 0137 7630
Passcode: 013011
Presenter
Dr. Bridget R. Scanlon
Fisher Endowed Chair and Prieto Fellow in Geological Sciences
Research Professor
Bureau of Economic Geology
Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin
Description
Challenges to Texas water resources management result from increasing demand related to population growth, industrial development, and rising drought stress along with declining water supplies. The Texas Imperative was initiated at the Bureau of Economic Geology to address water and energy issues in the State as part of the Bureau’s role as the State Geological Survey. The Texas Water Fund will allocate $1 billion per year of State sales and use tax to enhance the state’s water future through new water supplies (50% of funding) and various water and wastewater projects to address the increasing gap between water demand and supply within the context of intensifying droughts and floods.
The GRACE satellite data show declines in terrestrial or total water storage (TWS) since 2002 of ~ 90 maf, ~ six times annual water use in Texas. Depletion in TWS is mostly attributed to long-term groundwater storage declines as net change in surface reservoir storage has been minimal over this time period. With increasing intensity of floods in the state, stormwater represents a potential source of new water that could be captured. Analysis of high magnitude flows (HMFs, streamflow ≥95th percentile) shows that they accounted for ~ 10% of total streamflow at basin outlets (~ 3 maf/yr), with ~ 50% of HMFs unappropriated. Wet years in the early 1990s, 2015, and 2016 provided HMFs exceeding ~ 1 maf. Treated municipal wastewater represents a drought-proof potential source of water, with annual totals ranging from 1.5 – 2.0 maf/yr. Water co-produced with oil and gas, termed produced water, represents another potential source of new water that could be treated and used outside the oil and gas sector. Many of these new water sources could be stored in depleted aquifers using aquifer storage and recovery. Additional water management approaches include interbasin transfers and water trading. The Texas Imperative is evaluating various water management options to support the Texas Water Fund by providing various dashboards to facilitate analysis of different potential scenarios.
