With each issue, Trib+Water brings you an interview with experts on water-related issues. Here is this week’s subject: Steve Young is a principal geoscientist at Intera, a geoscience and engineering consulting firm in Austin. Young focuses on groundwater issues and how to solve them.
Trib+Water: There was an article in the San Antonio Express-News that said you were at a symposium asking if there is enough water to support Central Texas. Is there enough water to support Central Texas?
Steve Young: The short answer is that over the next 50 years there is enough water in the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to supply the growth needs based on the state water plan. But you have to be careful where you withdraw that water.
The water has different pumping impacts depending on if you pump from the shallower part or the deeper parts or where rivers are near it or existing wells. The key part of that whole puzzle is being able to withdraw from areas that would minimize the impact and to monitor those impacts as they accumulate in the area where you pump over time to make sure that you minimize the impact… Read more from the Texas Tribune