This month we explore academic articles on the topics of assessing how much groundwater is discharging into estuaries along the Texas Coast, developing a model to determine impacts of injecting large volumes of water produced from oil and gas wells through disposal wells in the Delaware Basin, and evaluating groundwater conservation practices in association with oil and gas production from the surrounding areas of the Carrizo-Wilcox formation in Texas.
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.
climate+water: The urban and rural land climate connection
Farmers, ranchers, and landowners increasingly experience the impacts of climate change as severe storms, floods, drought, and wildfire damage their operations and impact their livelihoods. Hosts Robert Mace and Carrie Thompson speak with Kristy Oates, State Conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), about working with private landowners to develop conservation (and climate) solutions that support rural Texans.
outlook+water: Major drought improvements, drought expected to return, here comes the tropical season
Summary: The amount of the state under drought decreased from 94.8% four weeks ago to 60.1% today, 91% chance of hot and dry La Niña conditions to continue through November, and the Atlantic is churning with tropical storms.
think+water: Rainwater is unsafe to drink, increases in lake evaporation, and fewer tropical storms with warming (except for the North Atlantic)
This month we explore academic articles on the topics of analyzing forever chemicals present in rainwater, evaluating evaporation losses at 1,420,000 lakes across the planet, and assessing historical data to show declining trends in the annual numbers of tropical cyclones.
outlook+water: 97.2% of the state is abnormally dry or worse, July was the warmest July on record, and La Niña has an 80% chance of hanging out through December
Summary: 97.2% of the state is abnormally dry or worse (slightly better than last month) with 26% in Exceptional drought (worse than last month); July was the warmest July in Texas since 1895, beating 2011’s July by 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit; there’s an 80% chance of remaining in La Niña conditions through December and a 60% chance of neutral conditions arriving in the spring.