June 27, 2013 – First of all, let me apologize for my
erratic posting schedule. The good news
is I was able to enjoy two brief vacations in June. The further good news is that there are no
more trips in the pipeline, so I’m back at it.
Since my posting schedule isn’t the only thing that’s been erratic
lately, let’s talk about the weather.
Last Saturday, my husband, a friend, and I were heading back
to Loveland from Indianapolis. Traffic
had been slow-moving on the way there, so we decided to take the long way home,
thinking we’d be able to bypass the road construction. Little did we know what lay ahead: strong
winds, small hail, torrential rain that caused visibility to decline to zero at
times, and electrical activity so intense that at one point we saw four
cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike at the same moment. My husband prides himself on allowing nothing
to keep him off the road; however, this time he bowed to a storm more fearsome
than any the three of us had ever driven through before.
Our friend was visiting from Scottsdale, AZ. She was raised there, moved away for a
significant period of time, but returned for an active, early retirement. Her fond memories of 105 degree temperatures
have always raised my eyebrows, but she knew what to expect. At times, 105 is still the forecast daytime
high temperature for Scottsdale. At
other times – like the coming weekend – the forecast high is 117. Honestly, can anything be done outside when
the temperature is that high? Even the
lows are predicted to remain at or above 90.
Then there’s Texas and its neighboring state, Oklahoma. Presumable everybody knows that Texas has
been hit hard by an ongoing drought.
What I didn’t know was that, for the last three years, Texas and
Oklahoma have been wrangling over the “excess water” held by the Red
River. The Red River constitutes a
portion of their border, and the Red River Compact stipulates that each of
them, along with Arkansas and Louisiana, is entitled to 25 percent of the
excess in a particular sub-basin of the Red River. That part’s not in dispute. Texas insists, however, that its 25 percent
includes water underlying Oklahoma.
Oklahoma disagrees, and the resulting court case went all the way to the
Supreme Court. The Supreme’s sided with
Oklahoma.
There can be no doubt – Texas desperately needs water. The ongoing drought has 95.2 percent of the
state assessed anywhere from “abnormally dry” to “exceptional drought.” Farming and ranching have both suffered
because of the extraordinary dryness.
The state has lost 115,000 jobs and $11.9 billion during every
year of the drought (three, so far).
As if that weren’t enough, Texas used more fresh water for power
generation during 2011 than almost any other state. The situation is becoming increasingly dire.
Twenty-three interstate water compacts closely resemble the
Red River agreement. Most of them
involve western states, many of which have been impacted by the historic
drought that is still in effect. A
number of the compacts contain ambiguous language, subject to
interpretation. It may be only a matter
of time before other disagreements arise.
As for Texas, it has just allocated $5 million for another court battle
over water, this time with New Mexico.
Because as we all know, you can’t use what you haven’t got.
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