Springs are UP!

[MonkeyAnvil]

Heya folks,

As you may have noticed, we all now live in Costa Rica, or Seattle Washington...that is if you have been tracking average rainfall of late. Kinda nice after a 5 year drought. I have been doing some investigative scuba diving for about 6 months now, taking measurements along the river at different places. Measuring depth, temp, visibility, and fish population. I'm happy to report that the river is thriving.

I checked out the springs by taking a glass bottom boat ride, and was amazed. The low pressure springs called "Cream of Wheat" was percolating in mass, and the circumference of the area had increased significantly from this same time last year.

Not to be a doom-bringer, yet the development and growth slated for this area is a little scary. Considering the demand on the aquifer continues to increase, not decrease, we should all consider water conservation as a way to live and do our part to preserve this great river. (climbing down off soapbox now). Anyway, it's nice to see everything so green in July in Texas - hasn't been this wet since 1959.

[semi-native]

I'll second the conservation thoughts. Growth or no growth, we ought to all be concerned about our water. I'm not sure what the town would be like without the San Marcos River.

I'm in the process of replacing our Saint Augustine lawn with Bermuda and I only cut it to 3-4", which shades the soil and promotes deeper roots. That's my green thumb tidbit for today.

[MonkeyAnvil]

Water is the next oil boom. Consider the rate at which water is naturally filtered.

Just set up a decent water collection system at my place, and now we water our greenhouse exclusively with the rainwater - the plants LOVE it. I'm considering putting a few more catchment tanks on our house, and rigging a natural solar-distiller to purify the rainwater for drinking in the event our electricity goes out, our we experience another drought.

Anyway, consider easy things that conserve water, and you'll be that much less in peril should we experience the upcoming water problems facing developing areas like ours.

Bravo for switching your lawn to Bermuda, that should save you bundles on your water bill.

[MonkeyAnvil]

I bought a used galvanized catchment tank from a farmer in Martindale, 1200 gallons. Basically built a raised pad with railroad ties, then topped those with treated 2x6's. Re-arranged some guttering, and wha-la...we've been using it for a little while now and love it.

Our greenhouse is downhill from it with a total drop of 3 feet between the outlet of the tank and the inlet of the soaker hose, so we don't use any pumping system. I also managed to find a really good solar hot water heater panel, 4 feet by 10 feet, copper-flat-plate collector. Building a stand to set it on, and will create a by-pass system to switch between a pre-heating loop for my propane-driven water heater, and a straight shot into my hot tub. Also scored a couple of solar panels, 45 watt each, and an old 12 volt water pump out of an abondone RV camper at green Guy Recycling - figure I'll use that for a pressurized system later. Anyway, it fun messing with it.

[kujoe]

I do some work for Texas Parks & Wildlife and while I'm not allowed to speak on their behalf in any official capacity, I can say that one of their most concerning issues is water conservation.

In fact this past February they had a video played on PBS (www.texasthestateofwater.org for more info) that addressed just that.

People don't realize how precious water is to our economy. It *IS* possible to bring water back to an area that has lost it, but it's not as easy as if you just conserve it to begin with.

There are plenty of towns here in Texas that have lost their rivers and streams due to careless usage of water.

Water is NOT a renewable resource. You CAN dry up a river.

Speaking as a citizen of Texas, I really wish more people would get on board with water conservation.