Worsening Climate Change Might Turn Texas Into Sonoran Desert, Officials Say

On Monday, Congressman Lloyd Doggett announced a $2 million project to better protect Texas rivers, aquifers, and lakes and figure out how to deal with dwindling water supplies.

Rep. Doggett, (D) 35th District of Texas says that the state might be facing some serious challenges. This prompted the allocation of funds that will provide tools that many local governments do not have today to plan and adapt to the climate crisis.

Investigative Lake Tour

Doggett took a tour of Spring Lake, riding on a glass-bottom boat to see the effects of climate change on Texas water. The tour at Texas State University provides a unique underwater view of how low water flows and droughts are changing the state.

Doggett points out that Texas could become much more like the Sonoran Desert as the heat continues to rise.

The Sonoran Desert takes up the southeastern tip of California and more than half of Arizona.

The water level at Spring Lake in San Marcos was lower by about a foot because of the sweltering June weather. Doggett noticed right away how few bubbles he was seeing. San Marcos Springs, which bubble up from the Edwards Aquifer to create Spring Lake, usually puts on a show through the abundance of bubbles.

Robert Mace, Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment explains that during his team's tour of the lake, very few of those areas were bubbling. They saw almost like scum on top of where normally there would be a field of sand and that's due to the low flows.

$2M Projects

Mace thinks the $2 million projects will provide much-needed local and state climate information that will help Texas figure out how to protect the state's water.

Mace points out that with the funding, texas will end up with climate information at a local level. Temperature, rainfall, evaporation, and information that helps people access how much climate change might affect their water resources.

Mace is optimistic that people will be able to know how much less water is there going to be in the river because of climate change than if we didn't have climate change.

The local climate change research could help Texas mitigate drought conditions that are impacting Arizona, California, and West Texas and threaten to do similar damage in San Marcos and Austin. It can also mitigate the Sonoran desert expansion,

Mace explains that it may be more aggressive water conservation and water reuse. He added that maybe some other things can be done that can help offset the detrimental effects of climate change on water.

Texas Projects

Doggett says that the local government knows that conditions will continue to worsen and that there is a need for a plan for protecting the invaluable water resources and beautiful areas like the rising heat. Doggett further points out that there is potential, with the technology, to develop good renewable energy resources. Some projects are being done in Texas however, the official thinks that it is not enough.

The research on climate change in San Marcos, Austin, and Texas is already underway. Doggett is optimistic that the results of the test might be available in a year.