Thirsty Texas Can't Drink Texas Tea

[Stephanie]

I'm pretty sure since I lived in Texas way back, the people there will tell thinkprogress to frack off and mind their own fracking business...they don't care what they think they know...

 

[NLT]

Texas always has had droughts even before industrialization. These Climate clowns are full of it.

1822: The first colonists under Stephen F. Austin find Texas weather tough on farming. Their “initial food crop of corn dies from lack of moisture,” according to the timeline. The first droughts are recorded in 1870, then again in 1885-1887.

1900: While the early years in Texas were dry, the turn of the century was the opposite: “Heavy rains falling on the Colorado River watershed caused the river to crest 11 feet above the Austin Dam,” the timeline says, “ultimately destroying it.” Another flood will destroy the re-built dam fifteen years later. In 1940, it is rebuilt by the LCRA and becomes the property of Austin.

1908-1912: Texas has another drought. It has a strange effect on one citizen, C.W. Post, who “spends four years and $50,000 on 23 attempts to use explosives to cause rain. He dies in 1914 believing that he could “shoot up a rain” whenever he wanted to,” according to TWRI. There’s another drought from 1924-1925.

1917-1920: Drought relief laws are passed, which allow counties to lend funds for “citizens to purchase seed and feed.” Irrigation canals are started on the High Plains.

1925-1929: The first water control and improvement districts are formed, and the Brazos River Conservation and Reclamation District is created, the first of its kind. The district is ”created specifically for the purpose of developing and managing water resources of an entire river basin.” A drought follows in 1933-1934.

1934-1935: The great dust bowl hits, with sand storms in Amarillo for three months. “Seven times, the visibility in Amarillo declines to zero,” TWRI says. “One complete blackout lasts 11 hours and one storm rages for 3 1/2 days.” A drought happens again in 1938-1940.

1950-1957: The drought of record occurs, the driest period in our state’s known history. The city of Dallas restricts lawn watering, and all but ten of the state’s counties are listed as “drought disaster” areas by President Eisenhower.

1957: The drought ends in the spring with “heavy, general rains.” The downpours result in major flooding. Several are killed and hundreds of homes are destroyed. But it isn’t long before another drought arrives, from 1961-1967.

1962: In the midst of the first drought since the 50s drought of record, a cold wave strikes, “comparable to the cold waves of 1899 and 1951,” according to TWRI. During the second week of January, temperatures in the Panhandle drop to below fifteen degrees, and “agricultural losses are $50 million,” the timeline says.

1965: The worst dust storm in a decade hits Lubbock, with wind gusts up to 75 mph “and dust billowing to 31,000 feet.” The timeline reports that “the rain gauge at Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, contains 3 inches of fine sand” and visibility was reduced to 100 yards. Another sandstorm in 1977 destroys millions of dollars worth of winter wheat and injures 20 in El Paso. Yet another drought hits in 1970-1971.

1984-1985: Conservation becomes the new focus for the state’s water plan. “Conservation of water, which is recognized as being more economical than developing new sources of water,” the timeline states, “becomes a key factor for granting water permits by the Texas legislature.” A drought arrives in 1988-1990.

1995-1996: Another drought strikes, this one with more agricultural losses than any other one-year drought.

1999-2002: Another drought arrives. In August of 1999, “excessive heat throughout August resulted in 16 fatalities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The airport reported 26 consecutive days of 100°F or greater temperatures,” the timeline says. The next year, extreme heat strikes again, with a 10-day average of 103.3 degrees Fahrenheit at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. 34 die because of heat in the state. And in 2001, the Rio Grande ceases flowing into the Gulf, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops are lost in the South Plains.

2005-2006: Yet another drought, this one with statewide losses of $4.1 billion. A two-year drought begins in 2007.

2008: Hurricane Ike hits Texas, with winds around 110 mph. The storm kills twelve, injures another 25 and “damage amounts were near $14 billion,” according to the timeline.
2010-2011: The current drought arrives. From October of last year to September of this year, rainfall averages just over eleven inches, making it the driest year in Texas history. Agricultural losses are estimated at $5.2 billion and counting.

A History of Drought and Extreme Weather in Texas | StateImpact Texas

 

[bodecea]

.

"You knew this was going to happen, and you knew it was going to happen in the desert-like South and Southwest. And whether the God-fearing folks in rural Texas knew it or not, when they voted for all those Drill-Baby-Drill Republicans (and Democrats who seek power by imitating them), they voted themselves out of water."


Because of fracking, there are towns in Texas where you turn on the tap and... ...and nothing happens.


- "Of course the warming-worsened drought in Texas has left much of the state parched. The town of Barnhart actually ran out of water. And the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality projects some 30 communities could run out of water by year’s end."

- "Every fracking job requires several million gallons of water. “Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again.” Fracking is probably not the wisest use of water anywhere, but in a drought it’s downright self-destructive."

- "The epic tragedy is that most of the water used for fracking is not recoverable, and the fossil fuels being unsustainably extracted with dwindling water supplies are only speeding up the day when the droughts become permanent and the land turns into a Dust Bowl.

West Texas has a long history of recurring drought, but under climate change, the south-west has been experiencing record-breaking heatwaves, further drying out the soil and speeding the evaporation of water in lakes and reservoirs. Underground aquifers failed to regenerate. “What happens is that climate change comes on top and in many cases it can be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, but the camel is already overloaded,” said [Texas climatologist Katharine Hayhoe].
​

Recent rains in Texas haven’t changed the picture much. “We’ve got to get floods. We’ve got to get a hurricane to move up in our country and just saturate everything to replenish the aquifer,” said Owens. “Because when the water is gone. That’s it. We’re gone.”"

Excerpted from:
Fracking Vs. The Drought: They Call It Texas Tea, But You Can't Drink Oil

​

.

Don't care....let them secede and deal with it themselves.

that's that caring for others we all expect...wear it proud
who the hell do you THINK has been taking care of their state, New Yarkers, New Jessssry...jeeewhize awful people

Texas wants to deal with their own problems. We need to let them go...and let them do so. That is a true conservative, states' rights value. What happened to yours?

 

[tinydancer]

Just a note. The OP blames fracking for droughts. Then puts up this picture from the 30's.

BUT...

Hydraulic fracturing in the United States began in 1949 and over a million wells have been hydraulic fractured since that time. Environmental safety and health concerns about hydraulic fracturing emerged in the 1980s, and are still being debated at the state and federal levels.

Hydraulic fracturing in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Gee whiz, liberal logic fails again.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

.

"You knew this was going to happen, and you knew it was going to happen in the desert-like South and Southwest. And whether the God-fearing folks in rural Texas knew it or not, when they voted for all those Drill-Baby-Drill Republicans (and Democrats who seek power by imitating them), they voted themselves out of water."


Because of fracking, there are towns in Texas where you turn on the tap and... ...and nothing happens.


- "Of course the warming-worsened drought in Texas has left much of the state parched. The town of Barnhart actually ran out of water. And the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality projects some 30 communities could run out of water by year’s end."

- "Every fracking job requires several million gallons of water. “Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again.” Fracking is probably not the wisest use of water anywhere, but in a drought it’s downright self-destructive."

- "The epic tragedy is that most of the water used for fracking is not recoverable, and the fossil fuels being unsustainably extracted with dwindling water supplies are only speeding up the day when the droughts become permanent and the land turns into a Dust Bowl.

West Texas has a long history of recurring drought, but under climate change, the south-west has been experiencing record-breaking heatwaves, further drying out the soil and speeding the evaporation of water in lakes and reservoirs. Underground aquifers failed to regenerate. “What happens is that climate change comes on top and in many cases it can be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, but the camel is already overloaded,” said [Texas climatologist Katharine Hayhoe].
​

Recent rains in Texas haven’t changed the picture much. “We’ve got to get floods. We’ve got to get a hurricane to move up in our country and just saturate everything to replenish the aquifer,” said Owens. “Because when the water is gone. That’s it. We’re gone.”"

Excerpted from:
Fracking Vs. The Drought: They Call It Texas Tea, But You Can't Drink Oil

​

.

Why didn't the fraccers just pay people to shut up like they usually do?

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

Texas has a history of swinging between droughts and floods.

It's call weather.

Fracking is part of the weather? WTF? Really?