Then There’s This: No Drought Here
So what if the lakes are half full – it rained, didn’t it?
By Amy Smith, Fri., Austin Chronicle, July 27, 2012
A little over two months ago, during a City Council work session on Austin Water Utility’s budget outlook, Mayor Lee Leffingwell raised the issue of relaxing the city’s Stage 2 drought restrictions that limit outdoor watering to once a week…
It’s possible the city wouldn’t be in a position to free up more water for St. Augustine grass had the LCRA not cut off water to rice farmers in downstream counties due to drought conditions in cities. Rice farmers are enormous water hogs, but they reportedly contribute nearly $400 million to the Texas economy and provide 5% of the nation’s rice. City officials and others often speak ill of rice farmers for using so much water without much thought to conservation.
Environmental activist Paul Robbins takes a different view. “I personally look at this situation and think, ‘Do they want us to eat grass?’ The rice farmers’ loss from this year’s crop would literally feed a million people on a calorie basis,” he said. “It seems OK to AWU that we waste water on grass, but not on rice.”