Drought

Rick Perry and Texas Politicians Pressuring Mexico to Pay its Water Debt

Mexico owes Texas water. And as the current drought presses onward, Texas politicians are trying to turn up the heat to get Mexico to pay. Last Friday, the Texas House voted unanimously on a resolution that the federal government should pressure Mexico deliver water to the United States. The same w ... More >>

As the Texas Lege Tackles $2 Billion Water Legislation, Drought Records Are Set

The Texas House and Senate took up legislation Tuesday to address a drought-induced water crisis. A proposed bill out of the House would pull $2 billion from the state's Rainy Day Fund to implement a 50-year water plan. Municipalities and water districts could apply for funds the state would priorit ... More >>

State Water Planners are Giving Lip Service to Conservation. Environmental Groups Want Them to Do More.

One of the few areas of bipartisan agreement in Austin this legislative season is that the state needs to take major steps to meet the state's long-term water needs. The arithmetic -- exploding population historic drought increasingly stressed water supply -- is simply too stark to ignore. The m ... More >>

ERCOT Says There May Not Be Enough Juice in the Power Grid To Prevent Rolling Blackouts This Summer

Just in case all this temperate whether has lulled you into the perception that the Texas power grid doesn't have the thinnest margin of safety between lights on and lights out anywhere in the country, here's a reminder: Summer is coming. ERCOT, the grid operator for most of Texas, says the odds th ... More >>

The Legislature is Considering Letting Cities Sue Homeowners For Overwatering Their Lawns

As it stands, anyone caught watering their lawns more than twice a week and/or during daytime hours and/or outside the official watering days ordained by City Hall faces a fine of between $250 and $2,000. As of last summer, the city had handed down slightly more than a handful. But this is Texas, w ... More >>

Lawmakers Are Taking the Battle Over Texas' Water Supply to Your Front Lawn

Water -- or the lack thereof -- has already made it to the top of the state Legislature's priority list, and it's an area of rare bipartisan agreement. After all, it doesn't take a hydrological engineer to figure out that growing population plus soon-to-be-maxed-out water sources plus historic droug ... More >>

National Weather Service: Expect A Warm, Dry Winter, North Texas

Last winter was a godsend. After surviving the driest year in Texas history, we got one of the wettest winters on record. Since April, though, North Texas has been racking up rain deficits, according to the National Weather Service's winter outlook. October was drier than usual, and November saw vi ... More >>

Hey Dallas, Don't Get Used to that Cheap Water

We've had it good, no doubt about it. Ever since the drought of the '50s, when Dallas water planners set forth, constructing and acquiring the rights to reservoirs that would feed the city's growth for the coming decades, we haven't had to worry. Even as Lake Travis contracted to a muddy puddle in 2 ... More >>

A&M Says 301 Million Trees Died in 2011 Drought. Dallas Arborist Thinks Real Number is Much Larger.

The record-breaking drought that Texas endured in 2011 wasn't good for much of anything. Farmers and ranchers suffered, as did the people in towns whose water supplies ran dry. And let's not forget the owners of lakefront property whose lots fronted an empty stretches of parched earth. See also: A ... More >>

Is Dallas Enforcing its Watering Restrictions? Just Ask the House of Blues and Ursuline

Last December, with Texas in the midst of one of the worst droughts on record and with lake levels dropping to worrying lows, the city of Dallas implemented Stage 1 water restrictions, meaning residents and businesses could only drench their grass twice per week. Even as North Texas was emerging fro ... More >>

Texas Cattle Country Braces For Another Hot Summer. But Will Drought Return?

Last summer -- the state's hottest and driest on record -- brought Texas ranchers to their knees. Rains have revived parts of the state, especially the east. But 50 miles west of Fort Worth and further, the drought varies from severe to exceptional. So, what's in store for us this summer? Unfair Pa ... More >>

Great Texas Drought of 2011 Was the Costliest Ever

It was clear when A&M's livestock economist said the drought had an agricultural toll of $5.2 billion back in August -- which didn't even really mark the nadir of the heatwave -- that we hadn't seen the worst this drought could do. Now we know: $7.62 billion in agricultural losses ... in a single y ... More >>

City Council to Discuss How to Reconcile Developing the City With Conserving Our Water

City Hall's touting the Urban Reserve as an ideal development given our weather and water needs.​In one way, shape or form we've noted most of what the city council will discuss this afternoon during its briefing. But there's one briefing we've overlooked: Water Conservation and the Land Developme ... More >>

Dallas May Be Out of the Drought (For Now), But Watering Restrictions Are Far From Over

​With the release of its latest map this morning, the U.S. Drought Monitor made it official: A few weeks' worth of heavy rain have officially removed Dallas-Fort Worth from the historic drought that has most of the state bone-dry. (Watch the 12-week animation here.) And per the AP's breaking-news ... More >>

Why Is Suhm Asking Council to Extend Watering Restrictions? "Water Sales," In Part.

​When Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm first told the council it was time, at long last, to enact twice-a-week watering restrictions, Dallas's six water-supply reservoirs were about 25 percent depleted. But last week's record rainfall, in addition to other recent wet-weather events, have helped fill ... More >>

Cattle Shipped Out of Texas in Record Numbers During Historic Drought

Texas breeding cattle chased the rain in 2011 to plains states such as Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas -- even all the way to Florida -- tripling the amount shipped out of state the year before. That 150,000 head left this stricken country is only the latest metric by which to judge the huge toll ... More >>

Thanks to Drought, Houston's Drinking More of Dallas's Wastewater Than Ever Before

Click to enlarge a map of the Trinity River Basin, courtesy the U.S. Geological Survey ​StateImpact Texas is a National Public Radio-KUT Austin-KUHF Houston joint dedicated to environmental issues. This morning, reporter Dave Fehling out of Houston looked at the water coming out of his tap and won ... More >>

Study: In Drought Planning, Water Managers Should Look Further Back Than 1950s

Photo by Brandon Thibodeaux​As we near the end of 2011, let us now look back on the year (without much fondness) and take stock. We racked up one of driest years in recorded history (more on that in a moment). The livestock and agricultural industries took a shuddering blow that, when the fina ... More >>

Why is Drought-Hit Dallas Selling Water?

Um ... because someone at City Hall is smart. Dang.

This Year's Drought Forced Record Cattle Decline Not Seen in Texas Since the 1930s

Photo by Brandon Thibodeaux​Texas cattle country lost some 600,000 head this year -- a 12-percent reduction in the herd -- driven by a drought that withered grasses and baked river beds and stock ponds. It's the kind of en masse decline the likes of which this state hasn't seen since drought r ... More >>

What's Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett Most Concerned About? Let's Find Out.

​Late yesterday I got a call back from Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett, for whom I'd left a message about Irving and the North Texas Municipal Water District's need to buy water from the city. We set up a time to chat this morning, and just got through visiting for a little while abou ... More >>

Assistant City Manager Answers Scott Griggs's Questions About Saving, Selling City's Water

​A couple of weeks back, during those water conservation and watering restriction briefings, council member Scott Griggs had a few questions for Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett that she wasn't prepared to answer, among them: Is the city presently selling water to gas drillers, and, be ... More >>

Drink In the City Council's Discussion on Conserving (And Selling) Dallas's Water Supply

I was in the middle of watching the city council briefings on water conservation and the Stage 1 watering restrictions yesterday when I got pulled away -- and just when it was getting interesting too. So this morning I started going back to review the tape, beginning just as Sandy Greys ... More >>

A Message from Mary Suhm Concerning Dallas's Role as Region's "Emergency Water Provider"

​So much for all that rain we were promised; there it goes, not even close save for last night's stray raindrops. The not-even-near-miss seems only fitting in advance of tomorrow's briefing before the Dallas City Council, when City Manager Mary Suhm will recommend going to Stage 1, twice-a-week wa ... More >>

Mary Suhm to Recommend Council Implement Stage 1 Watering Restrictions on December 12

Click to enlarge this chart from the drought update that will be discussed by the Dallas City Council on Wednesday.​On November 2, City Manager Mary Suhm told Unfair Park that the city would initiate Stage 1 water restrictions sooner than later; but exactly when, she would not say, only that the c ... More >>

As City Ponders Stage 1 Watering Restrictions, Scott Griggs Asks: What's Taking So Long?

Via.​Yesterday, after posting this item that asked when Dallas would finally implement mandatory watering restrictions in the midst of this historic drought, I spoke further with City Manager Mary Suhm, who reiterated: The city may indeed go to mandatory twice-a-week watering sooner than expected. ... More >>

Ranchers Petition Gov. Perry For Hay Bale-Out After Historic Drought Stunts Texas Crop

​Texas ranchers, bowed under the driest year in state history, are looking to Gov. Rick Perry for help. In an online petition, they're asking him to use the Texas National Guard and any state resources at his disposal to bring hay into the starving ranch country. Drought has withered much of t ... More >>

Dublin Donkey Rescue Facility to Take in Dallas County's Strays, Now "A Serious Problem"

​From time to time, as we noted in August, Dallas County takes to the Internet to auction off stray animals -- donkeys and mules, mostly, and the occasional horse -- found wandering roadways, usually after their owners have cut 'em loose. Dallas County Sheriff's Department Deputy Paul Stroud expla ... More >>

The Long, Dry Fall of the Texas Rancher

Ranchers are struggling to hold on to their herds during the driest year in Texas history.

Water Rights Policies At the TCEQ Could Affect Your Lunch

It's tough being a gulf oyster. The BP oil spill devastated Louisiana oyster beds, and then a historic Texas drought reduced river flows into Galveston Bay, seriously increasing the bay's salinity. Predators and disease are thriving and threatening the already hobbled industry. Now the Texas Commis ... More >>

Chatting With a NOAA Meteorologist About This Drought: What It Is and What It Ain't

Photo by Brantley HargroveA stock pond in Archer County​So, what's our problem? Mostly, it's La Nina, that little trollop. She's been messin' with Texas for a long time. And the relationship between her cool Pacific sea-surface temperatures and dry times here is pretty well established. For n ... More >>

From Stack of City Memos: Drought Forecast, Aquatic Plans and Tax Breaks For Downtown Biz

The city's looking to give a company $300,000 to move into Renaissance Tower.​On the other side you'll find the stack of memos City Hall sent Saturday morning, and, as usual, it's a mixed grab bag of goodies covering some familiar topics. As in: Assistant City Manager Forest Turner kicks things of ... More >>

What Do "Voluntary" Mean? It Means Dallas Wants Us to Cut Back on Yard Watering. Now.

Dew, the city's water-conservation mascot, is no Perry the Pipe.​Last week, you may recall, I asked Frank Librio, Dallas City Hall spokesman, if Dallas had any plans to follow its neighbors' leads and clamp down on water use. To which he responded: "The lakes are currently 84% full and we continue ... More >>

Your Water Bill's Going Up This Year. And the Year After That. And the ... Well, You Get It.

Click to embiggen ... or just go to Page 29 in this budget briefing.​I mention this in the comments below, but the 5.91 percent increase in our Dallas Water Utilities bill comin' this fall won't be the last one any time soon. Matter of fact, per this morning's council briefing, this is but the fir ... More >>

Hot Hot Heat: CBS Early Show Comes to Town, It Ain't 1980 Yet and Dallas's Drought Plan

​CBS Early Show's Marysol Castro's in town -- can't imagine why. Oh, right. It's hot. Still, not so hot that two high-school footballers can't spend their after-practice hours toiling in the sun -- one on a construction site, the other decorating doorknobs with fliers, both hoping to buy a car. Th ... More >>

Dallas County Now Under 90-Day Burn Ban

​No doubt you're aware: This is fast becoming one of the worst droughts in state history -- No. 3 so far, at a cost of billions to farmers and ranchers. And save for this tease of "dissipating thunderstorms" moving in, or not, from Oklahoma, it ain't gonna get any better any time soon. Which is wh ... More >>

Dust in the Wind? Maybe.

From the city council's Water Conservation and Drought Plan Update, a look at lake levelsOn Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will discuss updating the city's 4-year-old water conservation and drought contingency plans, as this is shaping up to be yet another dry, dusty year. The update is necessar ... More >>

Pray for Rain

U.S. Drought MonitorThe most recent drought report for Texas, posted TuesdayIn his January Climatic Bulletin, published earlier this month, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon documented Texas's "extraordinarily dry" and "unseasonably warm" January -- and warned of more months just like it to co ... More >>

Beige Book Filled With Gray

Someone's in the Weeds