Author: Robert Mace

Robert Mace is the Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Robert has over 30 years of experience in hydrology, hydrogeology, stakeholder processes, and water policy, mostly in Texas.

think+water: Climate change and the Pecos River Compact, climate change and South Central Texas, and San Antonio’s aquifer storage and recovery project

This month we explore articles on the topics of recommending changes to the Pecos River Compact to address the realities of a changing climate, analyzing reallocation and development actions between and within municipal, agricultural, and energy industry users in a water-scarce region, and reviewing lessons learned from 18 years’ operating experience at a large aquifer storage recovery wellfield for the San Antonio Water System.

outlook+water: Under an El Niño watch, drought stable (but expected to continue)

Summary: The Climate Prediction Center has issued an El Niño Watch with a 62% chance of conditions forming during May-June-July with an 80% chance in late summer. The amount of the state under drought conditions remained the same from four weeks ago at 58%, with drought intensity decreasing in the southern third of the coastal plains. Warmer than normal temperatures are expected over the next three months, with normal rainfall except for the High Plains and Far West Texas, where drier than normal conditions are expected.

think+water: Water affordability and climate change in El Paso, home on the future range of the Ogallala, and resilience after Winter Storm Uri

This month we explore publications on the topics of predicting future household water affordability in El Paso under conditions of climate change, examining the role of rangeland science for tackling the dwindling supplies of the Ogallala Aquifer, and tracking the water infrastructure resilience one year after Winter Storm Uri.