Essay On Texas Drought

Agriculture and Restrictions in Texas Drought In the article “Upstream, Downstream” the author Jenna Craig tries to educate us on the drought in Texas. In this article Jenna Craig, states, “Since 2007, Texas has be experiencing one of the worst droughts in history”(Graig 1). It has effected the state in many ways. It has hurt rice farming drastically, which is important because rice farming is huge and Texas. It has also impacted people living on lakes or rivers because that’s the water they use for drinking. Agriculture and wildlife is a huge part of Texas. Rice farming is a big help to the Texas economy. The economy takes a huge hit when farming drops because rice is such a big part of what Texas exports. Agriculture is not the only thing taking a big hit. Marinas are also negatively impacted by this drought. Anyone that works at a marina is negatively affected by this drought because their way of life
is based on water. Rice farming is very important to Texas for many reasons. One of those reasons is that Texas grows so much rice. Texas is one of the biggest rice growing states in the country therefore they bring in a lot of money from it. Another reason rice is important is because it is one of the only things you can successfully grow in Texas. With that being said all of that is threatened by draught. The Colorado river basin is almost at an all time low and that is where the farmers get most of their water from. So that could mean I huge cut back on water the farmers get to use. There has been many water restrictions for farmers in the past couple of years. In 2009 the farmers were allowed to use 367,920 acre-feet of water a year. That changed in 2013 to 22,346 acre-feet of water. Rice farmers have been able to fight off the climate 100 years but that all might changed just with the stroke of a pen. Their way of life is defiantly being threatened by this draught. I can relate to this because in the late 2000’s North Carolina was in a draught and we had to deal with several water restrictions. Because of the drought the cost of water has gone up significantly.
It would appear that only relief from the drought would be if you live on top of water. This is called the rule of capture which means if you get water from a well on your property you can get as much water as you please. “People get angry and cuss and scream at us of this even though its our water” says David Cantu. The drought threatens many Texans way of life. If you live on a lake or river it is not just a place to constantly go swimming it where you get your water from. The draught also threatens some peoples jobs. If you work at a marina and the water dries out you will no longer have a place to work. It also threatens the jobs of farmers because if there is no water for them to use then they simply cannot farm therefore they are out of a job. The water crises is negative is several ways. It severely hurts the farming in Texas which is horrible because we is such a huge export. It also threatens the jobs of people working in marinas. It is a pressing issue with no solution in
sight.