Exceptional Drought

What does it mean for the Texas Hill Country, specifically Gillespie County, to be in “Exceptional Drought?”

First, look down. The soil has become dry and hard with large cracks. Because soil moisture is low, dust or sand storms can occur. Hard dry soil makes it hard to plant crops. 

Look to your neighbors’ pastures and notice that forage is stunted and dry. Pasture conditions have become poor. Some are having to purchase supplemental feed for their livestock because hay production is reduced, crops are stunted. Irrigation is required but, even for irrigated crops, yields are down. Pastures become empty as producers sell off livestock. Entire herds are sold.

Reach down and touch the bits of grass that still cling to the soil. See how brittle and dry it is and know that this is now fuel for grass fires. As the afternoon winds pick up, sucking all remaining moisture from the air, wildfire danger becomes severe. Burn bans were instituted months ago but now, violators are fined and we caution against fire pits and bbq’s and parking cars on grass. We know that our entire world can change with one careless flick of a cigarette.

With each passing day, our water table drops. The city of Fredericksburg restricts lawn watering. Surcharges on excessive water use begins and rationing of water begins to be considered a viable course of action. Fountains cease jetting water. Bulk sales of potable water will be prohibited next. 

This is where we are right now.

For those living outside of the city limits, water rationing is self-imposed. Most of our wells are not metered. Times like these make water rationing with the use of metered wells seem like not such an unreasonable method of reducing water usage. 

In this county, we depend on our wells to see us through the summer. At the rate we are going, many wells won’t make it. Residential wells, especially the more shallow wells, are extremely vulnerable. The aquifer seems like a  mysterious water-filled place but in reality, an aquifer is not just an underground pool of water. Instead, water flows through the limestone in rivulets and channels. As the water table drops and the underground channels go dry, wells begin to dry up. The only recourse is to drill deeper but how deep is too deep? We do not know.

The geology of the Texas Hill Country is limestone with lots of holes and channels. It is called karst geology and it has taken millions of years of erosion to create this underground drainage system. We know that as surface water, in rivers, creeks and lakes, dries up, groundwater – that water that flows through the karst, our only remaining source of water, is drying up, too.

We look for every person, every family, every tourist and every company to conserve water. Right. Now. (https://hcuwcd.org/)

7/08/2022