I just stumbled upon the Texas Water Report: Going Deeper for the Solution, issued in January 2014 by Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Download 96-1746_Texas_Water_Report
Here is an introductory letter from Comptroller Combs:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In early 2012, my office released The Impact of the 2011 Drought and Beyond, a report examining the impacts of the disastrous drought and fires that cost Texas lives and billions in revenue.
Today Texas is trapped in another terrible drought, though one not quite as bad as 2011’s. Not yet, at least.
Texas has been prone to cycles of drought for centuries, and there’s no reason to expect that basic pattern to change. But our state has changed, and its burgeoning population and economy are creating an increasingly unquenchable demand for water.
In this report, we revisit the issue of drought, with a new focus on the larger issue of Texas’ water supplies, an essential resource that can bolster our economic growth — or limit it.
We examine the multiple sources of Texas' water, and the ways in which we fund the projects that develop these resources and deliver them where they are needed. We also discuss the $2 billion in new funding for water projects that voters approved on Nov. 5.
This additional funding offers no excuse for complacency, however. This is the moment to build on and harness this new momentum, and take further steps to ensure a steady supply of clean water for our children, and theirs.
We discuss promising new technologies and programs that can help us stretch our existing supplies further, as well as the state of play in the rapidly developing world of desalination, which promises to provide us with substantial new sources of fresh water.
Most importantly, this report makes a series of policy recommendations for our Legislature that could help provide water supplies ample enough to ensure that Texas can continue its remarkable growth and prosperity.
Texas’ water problems can and will affect every facet of our economy. My office is ready to help state and local policymakers throughout Texas grapple with this complex and all-important challenge.
Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller
The letter is fine - the usual. But what struck me was this statement on the cover:
Our planet is rich with oceans so deep we’ve scarcely seen the bottom, and vast underground supplies of water as well. But of all that water, clean drinkable water adds up to less than one-half of 1 percent. Not even a drop in the bucket.
Note that percentage is referenced to the total amount of water on Earth - not just freshwater. That's the way it reads to me.
On page 3 the report cites (from the UN) the figure of 1.4 billion cubic
kilometers (BCKM) as the total water on Earth - salt, fesh, frozen, etc. That is the approximate figure cited by the USGS - 1.338 BCKM. One-half percent of the UN number is 7M CKM. But right below 1.4 BCKM number the report says that only 200,000 CKM is available for human consumption (according to the UN). But that is only 0.0014% of Earth's total water.
The report then provides the graphic shown here, derived from a 2012 DNI report, on page 3. The graphic says that only a little more than one-half of 1% of freshwater is available for human use and that freshwater is 2.5% of total water (1.4 BCKM), or 35 million cubic kilometers. So 0.5% of that number is 175,000 CKM. That's close (equal, for all practical purposes) to the UN nunber of 200,000 CKM but a far cry from the 7,000,000 CKM, which is 0.5% of the total water on Earth. I am guessing that on the report's cover Texas meant to say 'less than one-half of one percent of the total freshwater' is clean, drinkable water.
So how much accessible freshwater is there? If you believe The Nature Conservancy (which I do not), it's only 0.03% of Earth's water, or 420,000 cubic kilometers, about double one of the Texas estimates and the UN estimate. The TNC does not include groundwater in this amount. Why not? It makes the accessible freshwater a much smaller number, which makes their mission seem more important and more critical to humankind and ecosystems.
We'll tackle this issue of the amount of clean, accessible water shortly. Suffice it to say that neither Texas nor the TNC knows what they are talking about when it comes to available, drinkable freshwater. The 7M CKM figure first listed above is actually closer than any of the other numbers.
Oh, yeah, then there is this statement on page 4:
Canada, with one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, has been characterized as a potential “OPEC of water,” though many Canadians support banning bulk.
Again - neglecting groundwater.
I give up - for today, at least.
Makes me wonder about the rest of the numbers in the report. I trust Ms. Combs vetted those more carefully since they pertain specifically to Texas.
"All hat, no cattle." - Texas saying
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