Abstract

Drought, in conjunction with a rapidly growing urban population and new environmental, industrial, and municipal water demands, has pushed Texas to a crossroads in its water resource management. The traditional approach of building more reservoirs to satisfy new demands is limited by economic, environmental, fiscal, political, and physical constraints. Texas water plans continue to emphasize a strategy of reservoir development for providing water to meet new municipal growth demands, but there is increasing emphasis on water conservation, reuse of treated effluent, aquifer storage, desalination, and transfer of water from agricultural uses to municipal uses. New state funding priorities require local expenditures for conservation projects.