With 38 public universities and 35 private colleges and universities in the state and many more across the country (and the world) interested in Texas, there’s a great deal of academic scholarship focused on water in the Lone Star State. In this column, I provide brief summaries to several recent academic publications on water in Texas.
Let’s start thinking about water!
A Comparison of California and Texas Secondary Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Climate Change
California and Texas are different in many ways, but, politically, they are worlds apart, with California solidly blue and Texas solidly red. How might these states teach climate change differently? Khalidi and Ramsey surveyed 832 high school teachers in both states (456 in the Golden State and 376 in the Lone Star State) for their understanding of climate change.
Teachers in both states showed inadequate knowledge and misconceptions of climate change with Texans (cough, cough) demonstrating less knowledge than Californians. Teachers in California were more likely to discuss the scientific consensus around climate change, while Texans were more likely to emphasize natural variations in climate. Not surprisingly, Khalidi and Ramsey detected a political signal in teaching about the scientific consensus on climate change (61% and 7% of Californian teachers identified as Democrat or Republican, respectively; while that split in Texas was 43% and 11%). The authors conclude that there’s a need for additional training to improve teachers’ understanding of climate change.
Citation
Khalidi, R., and Ramsey, J., 2021, A comparison of California and Texas secondary science teachers’ perceptions of climate change: Environmental Education Research, v. 27, no. 5, p. 669-686 (https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1838447)
A Multi-Reservoir Model for Projecting Drought Impacts on Thermoelectric Disruption Risk Across the Texas Power Grid
Lake Bridgeport, Texas
Winter Storm Uri (and subsequent late-spring issues) have revealed the reliability of the Texas power grid as, well, not all that reliable. Yet another threat to the grid is drought where high water temperatures affect cooling effectiveness and low river and reservoir levels affect the water supply for cooling. Both of these issues were on display during the last statewide drought between 2011 and 2015, and climate change has the potential to makes it all worse.
Turner and friends took a look at how climate change may impact the cooling needs of thermoelectric power in Texas. To do this, they projected the impacts of climate change on 30 reservoirs in Texas that provide cooling water for about two-thirds of Texas’ thermoelectric generation. The Turner team found thermal disruption for about half of the climate simulations with reservoir storage falling to 30% storage or less for about 20% of thermoelectric generation during the most severe droughts through 2049. One thing going for Texas is that all but one of these reservoirs (Colorado City) are in the wetter, eastern half of the state.
Citation
Turner, S.W.D., Nelson, K., Voisin, N., Tidwell, V., Miara, A., Dyreson, A., Cohen, S., Mantena, D., Jin, J., Warnken, P., and Kao, S.-C., 2021, A multi-reservoir model for projecting drought impacts on thermoelectric disruption risk across the Texas power grid: Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120892.
An Overview on Air, Water, Wastewater, and Solid Waste
The pandemic has unquestionably been a bad thing with millions of deaths worldwide and many millions more sickened with the virus. But there have been some interesting benefits, however temporary. For example, close to (my) home, the cessation of public access allowed Texas wild rice to run beautifully rampant in the San Marcos River. Decreased travel improved air quality. And, despite their bad reputation, my cats enjoyed seeing me all day, every day, for months on end.
Elsaid and friends provide a worldwide overview on observed impacts of the pandemic — both good and bad — on the environment. They report on the improved air quality but also note that ozone levels increased due to decreased nitrogen emissions. They idenitfied reports of improved water quality but also note that wastewater treatment plants reported a higher organic load with chemical signatures of sanitizers, disinfectants, and antibodies. Not considered in the article is increased household water use (hence, in part, the run on toilet paper), which would be particularly interesting to look at for bedroom communities.
Map of East Asia, showing the tropospheric column density of carbon monoxide (CO) and formaldehyde (HCHO) averaged in February 2019 and February 2020 (Ghahremanloo et al., 2021).
Citation
Elsaid, K., Olabi, V., Sayed, E.T., Wilberforce, T., and Abdelkareem, M.A., 2021, Effects of COVID-19 on the environment—An overview on air, water, wastewater, and solid waste: Journal of Environmental Management, v. 292, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112694
Join Our Mailing List
Subscribe to Texas+Water and stay updated on the spectrum of Texas water issues including science, policy, and law.