AWWA REUSE52119

Texas is at an historical crossroads. The era of plentiful water, when needscould be readily met with new water supply development, is coming to a close.Texas currently has approximately 16 million acre-feet per year or 14.5 billiongallons of water a day, of dependable conventional freshwater supplies from itssurface and groundwater sources such as manmade reservoirs and groundwateraquifers. Even if all economically feasible reservoirs are developed andgroundwater was withdrawn at its average rate of recharge, only another three tofive billion gallons a day of dependable supply could be developed. The ultimatesource of all fresh water is precipitation, but when it does not rain, manyperspectives can change. In the mid 1990s, two events occurred in Texas, oneplanned and one not, which resulted in an increased focus on water issues. Thefirst was the update of the Texas Water Plan through a consensus processinvolving the State's planning, environmental, regulatory, and wildlife agencies.The second was a drought of short duration in 1996; a drought that saw more than340 communities ration water, severe crop loss, and widespread wildfires. Thesetwo events helped focus Texas' citizens, agencies, and legislators alike on theneed for revisions to the way Texas looks at water supply, drought management,and the need for water conservation, reuse, and other innovative technologiessuch as desalting, rainwater harvesting, brush control, and aquifer storage andrecovery. The result was a set of legislative, policy, and regulatory actionsthat will continue to have dramatic impact on water conservation, droughtmanagement, and water reuse practices in Texas. Reuse of treated effluentcontinues to grow and much of the new legislative and regulatory activityinvolves water reuse. The purpose of this paper is to look at the current statusof reuse in Texas, examine the potential of reuse in the future, and brieflydescribe some of the institutional and technical activities that will affectreuse. Includes figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

01/01/2000

Number of Pages:

9

File Size:

1 file , 130 KB