{"id":11414,"date":"2012-05-31T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=11414"},"modified":"2012-05-30T14:12:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T19:12:24","slug":"exploring-the-gap-between-water-supply-and-energy-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/31\/exploring-the-gap-between-water-supply-and-energy-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Gap Between Water Supply and Energy Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11476\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/24\/lessons-from-the-outback-how-australia-survived-drought\/a-man-shelters-from-the-rain-under-his-u\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11476\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11476\" title=\"A man shelters from the rain under his u\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/05\/74182835-300x185.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/05\/74182835-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/05\/74182835.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by WILLIAM WEST\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man shelters from the rain under his umbrella as he passes a giant mural showing the drought-affected Australian outback in 2007.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A growing shortage of freshwater is transforming into a commonplace <a href=\"http:\/\/drought.mssl.ucl.ac.uk\/drought.html?map=%2Fwww%2Fdrought%2Fweb_pages%2Fdrought.map&amp;program=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmapserv&amp;root=%2Fwww%2Fdrought2%2F&amp;map_web_imagepath=%2Ftmp%2F&amp;map_web_imageurl=%2Ftmp%2F&amp;map_web_template=%2Fdrought.html\">global experience<\/a>. Australia, Northern Africa, the Middle East, India, North East China, Argentina, portions of Brazil, and even Southern Europe are witnessing declines in freshwater availability.<\/p>\n<p>In the U.S., states that don\u2019t normally experience <a href=\"http:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/\">drought conditions<\/a> such as Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Washington are now watching water caches run dry. \u201cDrought is a trend, rather than just a temporary event,\u201d says Michael Hightower, a representative of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandia.gov\/\">Sandia National Laboratories<\/a>, \u201cWe are in about a three hundred-year drought that has been ongoing since the mid-1700s.\u201d Hightower spoke about the challenges and opportunities for the expansion of water availability at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tamest.org\/events\/2012-water-summit.html\">2012 Water Summit<\/a> hosted by the University of Texas at Austin\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tamest.org\/\">Academy of of Medicine, Engineering and Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think our political systems are set up to handle drought,\u201d says Hightower. He\u00a0cites the growing connections between energy development and water availability as a key justification for water resource expansion. He says that water availability issues are already impacting new energy development, like with fracking (a single <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/fracking\/\">hydraulic fracturing<\/a> well requires up to three million gallons of water) and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ethanol_fuel#Manufacture\">ethanol production<\/a>\u00a0(which requires three to four thousand gallons of water per bushel of corn).<\/p>\n<p>So, what tools do we have to decrease the growing gap between our water resources and energy development plans?<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/22\/the-secrets-behind-san-antonios-water-conservation-success\/\">The Secrets Behind San Antonio\u2019s Water Conservation Success<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/23\/measuring-the-drought-how-new-tools-show-its-impact\/\">Measuring the Drought: How New Tools Show Its Impact<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/24\/lessons-from-the-outback-how-australia-survived-drought\/\">Lessons from the Outback: How Australia Survived Drought<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/25\/how-the-drought-exposed-texas-water-insecurity\/\">How the Drought Exposed Texas\u2019 Water Insecurity<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/29\/why-climate-change-may-increase-water-demands\/\">Why Climate Change May Increase Water Demands<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/04\/Screen-Shot-2012-05-02-at-1.42.38-PM.png\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought-app\/\">An Interactive Look at the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/119835727-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/WaterinTexas1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/water-in-texas\/\">Your Guide to Water Issues In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Hightower recommends better resource planning and management, improved water and energy use efficiency, and the development of alternative water resources and supplies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/04\/pass-the-saltwater-desalination-and-the-future-of-water-in-texas\/\">Desalination<\/a> efforts in the United States are increasing by ten percent per year, while <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/04\/24\/op-doc-taking-the-waste-out-of-wastewater\/\">water reuse<\/a> is growing at fifteen percent each year. There\u2019s no reason why Texas shouldn\u2019t diversify its water resources as well, Hightower says.<\/p>\n<p>He also notes that renewable energy systems <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/20\/how-wind-energy-can-power-desalination-in-texas\/\">increasingly parallel<\/a> water systems. We can use <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/texas-solar-power\/\">solar energy<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/texas-wind-power\/\">wind power<\/a> to clean water supplies, for instance, Hightower says.<\/p>\n<p>Behind Hightower\u2019s comments rests an underlying hope that the drought will result in some fruitful modifications: that with continued focus, the drought might just usher in a new era of water innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A growing shortage of freshwater is transforming into a commonplace global experience. Australia, Northern Africa, the Middle East, India, North East China, Argentina, portions of Brazil, and even Southern Europe are witnessing declines in freshwater availability. In the U.S., states that don\u2019t normally experience drought conditions such as Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Washington are now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":11476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,140,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11707,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions\/11707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}