I'll be happy to see the last of winter. It didn't get cold enough to damage any vegetation. But it didn't rain either. Rain won't help the city's wells, that water is under a caprock and they won't recharge. You can think of our aquifer as a container for fossil water. I believe most of the small towns around here rely on a water table on top of the caprock, and those can be recharged by rainfall, but slowly. But that water is easily contaminated. Surface reservoirs can and do go dry, and most of those become very salty as the water levels decline. In my humble opinion, this area is being asked to support a non-sustainable population, and we hit the wall much sooner if droughts become the norm. And I know from experience how hard it is to maintain the wells drilled into this aquifer. It is saturated sand. Pump impellors get eaten up. The cones of depression that form around each well decrease pumping efficiency over time, and they refill very, very, slowly when a pump is taken out of service. High maintenance operation. Lots of sand to deal with. It was common practice to shut down the Bailey County well field and send front end loaders into the reservoir to remove accumulated sand. The wells pump water AND sand. Not an ideal situation for a city with delusions of endless growth. If it rained more, the surface water reservoirs would be a good supply. But it IS NOT raining enough to sustain those reservoirs, and if drought becomes the norm, eventually you are completely reliant on well water. That isn't going to work indefinitely. That's NOT sustainable. You can, of course, try magic, rain dances, and prayer. Good luck with that. Nature doesn't give a shit.
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