So you're telling me we won't be taking long, hot, steamy showers together in the middle of the night

[RPM 26236]

Residents at the sprawling Terlingua Ranch near Big Bend National Park will limit residents to 1,000 gallons of nondrinking water per month.

 

ODESSA — To cope with a growing population and increasing demand for water, a popular resort and residential complex in Terlingua told its residents that it would limit water sales.

The eight-member board overseeing 200,000 acres of privately owned land and short-term rentals called Terlingua Ranch Lodge — about 70 miles from the Big Bend National Park — sells drinking and nondrinking water to permanent residents. Many rely on the association for their monthly supply.

But for the first time starting in September, the board will reduce the amount of nondrinking water residents can purchase monthly if the well water levels begin to drop. Board members hope to avoid running out of water again, as in 2018 when one of the ranch’s five wells dried up.

“We’ve created a dependency,” Larry Sunderland, the association’s water committee chair, told The Texas Tribune last June. Sunderland said then that residents shouldn’t rely on the ranch wells because they weren’t drilled to sustain the ranch’s existing population and accommodate tourists.

The water scarcity in this West Texas village is a microcosm of the state’s own water crisis. Texas’ booming population is straining water systems and supplies, and the state is only beginning to meet the demand. The Texas Water Development Board, which manages the state’s supply, began distributing $1 billion in taxpayer-approved dollars for urgent projects addressing those needs. In Terlingua, this is the first step to conserving water and the start to understanding how much water flows underneath them.

“Everything is a guess at this point,” Sunderland said of the water coming out of the well, adding that the technology will help property owners manage their water needs by knowing how much water the board has available.

 

Dues-paying property owners can purchase a set amount of water monthly. The association’s charter says they can purchase 1,000 gallons of nondrinking water monthly. Each gallon costs 10 cents — $50 if they take the full amount. Property owners can get up to 25 gallons of free drinkable water every week. Anything above that is 25 cents per gallon.

Its unclear how much water these new limits will save. More than 5,000 people own property on the ranch. But most don’t live there, and the number of full-time residents changes frequently.

 

Additional restriction may be possible based on water levels. The board, which owns five water wells, begin monitoring the wells using sounding tubes.

The board will use a 0-4 rating system to meausre the health of its wells. At 0, sales will be normal. At 1, the ranch will begin reducing water sales by 20%, to 800 gallons monthly. At 2 it will cut water sales by 50%. At 3, its second highest status, the board will cut 75% of the water it sells to just 125 gallons. And at 4, the highest rating, the ranch will stop selling water altogether until the well recovers.

Scientists, regulators and local officials are just beginning to uncover precisely how much water is beneath the soil in Terlingua. The Water Development Board has no precise map of the body of water, called an aquifer, in South Brewster County, where Terlingua sits.

The equipment monitoring the stages of the well will offer a glimpse. Sounding tubes detect the elevation levels of a water well. When the tube reaches water, the tube pulses, indicating the water level, said Kevin Urbanczyk, a professor of geology at Sul Ross University and board member of the Brewster County Groundwater Conservation District.

The board will use the sounding tube at the start of each month and publish the results on its website.

Urbanczyk said the sounding tubes provide limited information about the water that rises to the surface. Obtaining comprehensive data about the bed of water even further below requires a team of scientists, engineers, and funding — a time-consuming and expensive process. He said the conservation district has partnered with the ranch to study the available data. He plans to solicit funding and help from the Water Development Board in the future.

“Their wells are limited in their capacity, and they're trying to put Band-Aids on it,” he said. “And with that increasing population, I'm not surprised at all. I think that a conservation mindset is a really good step in the right direction for that.”

[crash_davis 23084]

Who knew water would become an issue for people living in a desert?

Actually fresh water is an issue or will become an issue for the entire West, including Texas.

[Rockwell Torrey 1277]

Why don’t they just drink Brawndo?!?

[Frank Drebin 5618]

Need to improve and scale desalination.

[High Plains Drifter 10984]

 

How many of those assholes collect rainwater? I realize its the desert, but even if annual rainfall is only say 10 inches, if you collect all that off the roof of a medium size house, that is thousands of gallons of water a year collected. 

 

The Rio Grande is drying up, and it should be absolutely no surprise that nearby wells are drying up as well. The aquifer and the river are the same milkshake-- take a slurp out of one, the other also goes down. 

[High Plains Drifter 10984]

1 hour ago, Frank Drebin said:

Need to improve and scale desalination.

 

I think El Paso has the largest inland desalination plant in the world. Their drinking water started going brackish years ago, and this was their solution. 

 

 

[Beau Vine 54010]

On 8/20/2024 at 8:32 AM, RPM said:

The association’s charter says they can purchase 1,000 gallons of nondrinking water monthly. Each gallon costs 10 cents — $50 if they take the full amount.

[High Plains Drifter 10984]

32 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

 

Forget it Beau, its Terlingua. 

[TheStoicPaisano 9904]

Like out the toilet?

[crash_davis 23084]

Just now, TheStoicPaisano said:

Like out the toilet?

It makes no got damned sense to be flushing drinking water. Amazing that with the water issues most of the world is facing, utilities and builders haven't come up with a commercially, efficiently ubiquitous way differentiate usage of potable vs non-potable water.

[Nonbryan 173]

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

It makes no got damned sense to be flushing drinking water. Amazing that with the water issues most of the world is facing, utilities and builders haven't come up with a commercially, efficiently ubiquitous way differentiate usage of potable vs non-potable water.

and I have to imagine we can use grey water more effeciently as well, right?

[drt 637]

I get only having one set of pipes to residences. Utilities cost money. I think the lower hanging fruit is grey water systems for toilets and irrigation, ie using water more than once at the end of the line.  Can also do rainwater collection for toilets as well, as that doesn’t cost much for treating and you’re looking at what, around 1000-1500 gallons a month to flush toilets?

[crash_davis 23084]

1 minute ago, drt said:

I get only having one set of pipes to residences. Utilities cost money. I think the lower hanging fruit is grey water systems for toilets and irrigation, ie using water more than once at the end of the line.  Can also do rainwater collection for toilets as well, as that doesn’t cost much for treating and you’re looking at what, around 1000-1500 gallons a month to flush toilets?

This is what I'm talking about. Governments, utilities, and builders should be working together to design and build better systems to get the most use from of water. 

De-salinization is expensive and currently inefficient. Maybe de-salinization doesn't have to meet potable standards but can meet standards for watering and toilets. Deliver potable water to taps, then work with builders to build systems to deliver and re-use non-potable and grey water.

Fuck anything is better than what we have today, which is the one offs here and there by homeowners coming up with and paying for their own solutions. 

Need is the mother of innovation but motherfucker, we needs now. 

[tx 3 putt 76423]

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

It makes no got damned sense to be flushing drinking water. Amazing that with the water issues most of the world is facing, utilities and builders haven't come up with a commercially, efficiently ubiquitous way differentiate usage of potable vs non-potable water.

This hits close to home, just took a huge dump 

Edited August 21 by tx 3 putt

[MissingInAction 24845]

I bidet my ring piece with only the finest sparkling waters.

[Guadaloopy 10927]

1 hour ago, MissingInAction said:

I bidet my ring piece with only the finest sparkling waters.

Hear, hear.  Don't brackish my bidet.  Keep your gray water off my brown eye.

[Dnaguy 11778]

On 8/20/2024 at 9:47 AM, Rockwell Torrey said:

Why don’t they just drink Brawndo?!?

It’s got what plants crave.

[High Plains Drifter 10984]

 

This is how I recycle at least a little water. I put a five gallon bucket under the spigot in the bath tub/shower, where nobody ever takes a bath. All the water that is wasted while you wait for the water to get hot goes into the bucket. After three of us (me, wife, daughter) or maybe less if someone showers upstairs, the bucket has maybe three gallons in it. I take that water outside and pour it on one of my fruit trees. Every day a different tree. 

Sure, maybe a little soap/shampoo/whateverthefuckmydaughterputsonherhair gets in the bucket, but I don't think the fruit trees care. Might even make my peaches taste better, who knows. 

[Incredulity 11563]

To the thread title, wouldn’t the most effective use of shower water be for everyone in a household to shower all together?

[General Specific 3235]

To the thread title, wouldn’t the most effective use of shower water be for everyone in a household to shower all together?

[drt 637]

9 hours ago, crash_davis said:

This is what I'm talking about. Governments, utilities, and builders should be working together to design and build better systems to get the most use from of water. 

De-salinization is expensive and currently inefficient. Maybe de-salinization doesn't have to meet potable standards but can meet standards for watering and toilets. Deliver potable water to taps, then work with builders to build systems to deliver and re-use non-potable and grey water.

The only way this happens is if cost of water skyrockets or regulation comes down due to a widespread supply shortage. Which is to say it would be fucking painful at a societal scale.   
 

People just don’t have a conservation mindset, and the average Joe won’t or can’t pay for a grey water system as it stands. I can’t imagine what a plumber would charge for the first time they tried to rig up a system, especially if it was piecemeal. Which is sad because at the neighborhood or apartment building scale, it wouldn’t be that hard or expensive to do. For a single house, when they’ve never done it before…good luck. 

[ztejas 43266]

7 hours ago, Incredulity said:

To the thread title, wouldn’t the most effective use of shower water be for everyone in a household to shower all together?

I've seen a lot of... films... with this premise. 

[crash_davis 23084]

West Travis County enters the game

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/travis-county/west-travis-county-residents-told-to-stop-irrigation-utility-says-water-tanks-didnt-refill/

West Travis County residents told to stop irrigation, utility says water tanks didn’t refill

The West Travis County Public Utility Agency (WTCPUA) said in its low water pressure/no water advisory that overnight irrigation “emptied the storage” and asked for an immediate shut off of irrigation systems.

“Due to extremely high irrigation demand, some customers are experiencing low water pressure or no water at their homes,” the advisory said. “Please refrain from irrigation, filling pools and other activities that consume a lot of water and are not strictly necessary throughout the day to give our tanks a chance to recover.”

Customers of the PUA were already under Stage 2 restrictions, with watering limited to once per week during limited hours.

The PUA initially said it expected the tanks would need the rest of the day to refill, but updated its report at 8 a.m. Friday, warning that “tank levels are continuing to drop.”