Bryson, TX Desperately Trying To Finish Pipeline Before Water Runs Out

BRYSON, Texas — Water is so precious in this little town that elementary school students have to wash their hands with pre-moistened wipes instead of turning on the restroom faucets. Folks haven't turned on their lawn sprinklers for three years. And some people have abandoned their swimming pools, draining them, filling them in with dirt or letting the water go stagnant.

The problem: The sole source of water for Bryson's 550 residents is one small well that is pumping a drought-constricted 38 gallons a minute. But help is on the way. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week approved the city's $500,000 grant application to build a six-mile pipeline to another community's water supply, and the project should be completed by June.

Now the race is on to finish it before the water runs out. "I believe we can hang on if it's the good Lord's will," Bryson Public Works Director John Walden said Tuesday.

For 25 years this oil-and-ranching town got its water from manmade Lake Bryson, which was supposed to be able to supply a population of 2,000. But the lake has been shrinking from years of drought, slowly dropping from 28 feet to 8 feet deep, and last year some of the aging dam equipment broke, preventing water from flowing out. While the equipment was being repaired, the town relied on two wells. But one went dry in December, and the other is pumping far short of the necessary 100 gallons a minute. The town is still hoping to fix the dam, but the lake has only 60 days of water left anyway.


EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9838

is that you don't live there anymore? just a thought.

you know nothing about?

the person quoted in the article said that the water pipeline would be built in time if "it was God's will' If God can determine the construction schedule for a pipeline, why not also read his will into the fact that all the water is gone from the local area?

Get used to this, by the way, more and more western towns are going to end up having to ship water in over the next 20 years, it's not only large cities (like LA) that will need water imported. We are using more water in much of the West than is entering the system, maybe if the people in the town didn't have lawns to water, or swimming pools to fill, they wouldn't have exhausted their supply and need to go elsewhere? And what happens when the aquifer at teh next town over is depleted? and the next one? Ever wonder why the Colorado River doesn't reach the ocean any more? and retreats by close to a kilometer a year further inland? We all have to make choices, and maybe living in a place that doesn't have any water isn't the best choice?

can tell you that many or most of the families hanging on in these regions have been there for many years. They often are elderly. Many are Hispanics with small pieces of land on which they work hard and of which they are very proud, These people cannot just move because they have nowhere to go that does not involve major upheaval and money, which they do not have. Also huge companies have drained underground water for irrigation so springs that once ran freely are no longer anywhere to be found. You might want to contact some of those who live in large Western cities about their water usage and ask them to move and not poor people trying to eke out a life in small town Texas.

major upheaval is exactly what's coming their way. The water is gone. Their hard work and their pride and their faith in their lord isn't going to bring the water back. It's unfair, but "fair" is pretty much beside the point, don't you think?

so what are we going to do about it?