DALLAS — Texas is losing water.
And the problems facing our state now and into the future are real, and getting worse.
“We lose about a farm a week in Texas, but it’s 700 years before we run out of land. The limiting factor is water. We’re out of water, especially in the Rio Grande Valley,” Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Miller, and at least two other state lawmakers who’ve appeared on Inside Texas Politics recently, tell us the water shortage issue is about to take center stage in Texas.
Miller recently wrote an op-ed describing the problem and offering possible solutions for what he calls “self-reliance.”
“Our tomato production in the Valley is just about gone. They usually grow five crops of vegetables in that Winter Garden area. They have enough water to grow one. So, our production’s down 80%. And it’s all about water,” Miller said as an example.
Miller thinks the state should prioritize capturing stormwater and reusing treated water.
Other options he includes to maximize our water resources involve improving the efficiency of irrigation and other delivery systems, increasing storage capacity and adding new reservoirs.
“We gotta recycle our water,” the commissioner said. “Our water treatment water goes into the creek, right out in the Gulf. We need to capture that and let my farmers irrigate with it.”
To “maximize every drop,” Miller says part of that would include off-channel storage, so nothing goes to waste.
And this does include using brackish water, which is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as seawater.
Miller says a new brackish water treatment plant will open in Alice, Texas later this year, which will provide 2.7 million gallons of fresh drinking water daily.
Even the oil and gas industry has a role to play, according to Miller. The Agriculture Commissioner thinks the state should consider using brackish water for fracking instead of fresh water.
But, as expected, solving the problem will be expensive.
Miller says we can pay for it through federal grants that already exist, tapping into funds from the Texas Water Development Board that taxpayers have already paid into, and grants by the Texas Department of Agriculture.
As an example, Miller tells us the Department gave out 90 grants to small communities across Texas, $500,000 each, to replace antiquated water lines.
The bottom line, Miller says, is Texans need to be talking about this problem more and it’s time for lawmakers and other leaders to act.
“You can’t get a Pecos cantaloupe anymore," Miller said. "The wells are dry out there. They don’t grow cantaloupes in Pecos anymore. Everybody used to love to eat Pecos cantaloupes. You can’t find one anymore because the farmers are gone. There’s no water. They had to leave.”