Some areas are starting the year with low water reserves, and forecasters don’t expect substantial relief from the weather.
Above: A bridge crosses the dry bed of Falcon Lake in Zapata, Texas, 60 miles south of Laredo
That’s bad news for places like far South Texas, where big reservoirs on the Lower Rio Grande fell from 33 percent to 23 percent full over the last 12 months. A repeat of similar conditions would leave the reservoirs far lower than they’ve ever been, triggering an emergency response and an international crisis.
Worries stretch beyond the Rio Grande. In Corpus Christi, on the South Texas coast, authorities last month stopped releasing water aimed at maintaining minimum viable ecology in the coastal wetlands, even as oil refineries and chemical plants remain exempt from water use restrictions during drought.
Wherever Texas rivers join the sea, these once-vast wetlands host critical reproductive cycles of many aquatic species, and they depend on freshwater inflows for their characteristically half-salty, nutrient-rich systems. When water supply gets tight, the bays and estuaries typically are first to see their allocations revoked while cities keep dam gates closed.