Issue Position: Conservation and Reuse- The Basics of Our Water Future

Issue Position

"If cities look at the water they have -- rainwater, reservoir water, groundwater, wastewater -- as different shades of one water, they quickly realize that there's no such thing as "storm water" or "wastewater." It's all water. " [1] (ref New York Times article on how California is winning the drought)

This past year could be called the "year of the downpour." It provided a much-needed gift to Texas by ending the drought that had gripped much of the state and by filling our local reservoirs to capacity . Despite how beautiful our full lakes look at the moment, past history tells us the next drought is just around the corner. Our expanding population here in North Texas will require even more water than in the past. As a consequence, each of us must learn to use less. The current water usage target in gallons per capita per day (GPCD) is 140 (set by the Texas Water Conservation Implementation Task Force). Although we have shown positive downward trends in our water usage for the North Texas Municipal Water District (which services most of House District 33) - we are still at 147 GPCD; so we can, and should do better.

Why should North Texas care? The answer is simple economics along with a shot of environmentalism.

Conservation and reuse are the cheapest and most earth-friendly ways to achieve our water usage goals. Additional reservoirs and pipelines can certainly help, but they impact our rural neighbors and are costly to build and maintain. The more we can conserve, the better our municipal water districts can plan to minimize future expense and the cost each of us pays for water. One simple way we can all save water is to only water our yards manually in the winter months -- from November to March. During the warmer months, utilize the North Texas Municipal Water tool -- watermyyard.org - to help reduce your lawn irrigation requirements. Finally, as you replace landscape plants consider drought tolerant species. http://dallas.tamu.edu/media/127188/top100.pdf

In the legislature, I will propose that we provide additional funding for conservation education and strategies. In the last budget, Governor Abbott struck $1M from the budget for conservation education -- saying it was duplicative. It is not -- we still haven't funded the statewide water conservation education program we passed in 2007. Texas needs to ensure that we plan for future droughts today -- and not wait until we are in the middle of the next one.

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