Last summer we examined how a mid-sized Texas city supplies water to its citizens. From what it takes to fill up a lake, to how the water flows through the city, to how progressive cities are reducing waste, we have followed water from the cloud to the lake to the tap to the drain and back to the lake. All that is lacking to you give you the full picture is to look at the future water issues of Abilene, Texas. While this may seem rather specific, Abilene is just an example of issues that affect most western cities of a certain size.

To fully illustrate the point, we need to consider how Abilene has found water in the past.

To save time, I have condense the timeline into a simple animation:
(you may prefer to click on the image and display it in its own window.)

History of Abilene, Texas water supply from the 19th century into the future

In the past

• 1897 Lytle Lake
• 1918 Lake Abilene
• 1927 Lake Kirby
• 1937 Fort Phantom Hill Reservoir
• 1952 Clear Fork of the Brazos and Deadman creek Diversion Dams
• 1962 Hubbard Creek Reservoir
• 2003 O.H Ivie pipeline 
• 2015 Wastewater recycling to Fort Phantom

In the future

• Possum Kingdom pipeline
• Cedar Ridge Reservoir

Will it be enough?

Since my last posts concerning water issues, Fort Phantom Hill Reservoir became 98% full; however, el nino has wandered off to play elsewhere and that mean little girl, la nina, may soon be here to further dry things out. 2016 is already on record as the 11th most dry winter, and drought is starting to steal back into Texas.

During the time between the moist autumn and the soon to be dry spring, many people have quickly forgotten how bad it can get. The City of Abilene is proposing a water park and people are calling for completely ending watering restrictions. Do you think it is wise? Leave me a comment.

In an upcoming post I will look at droughts of the past and also explore exactly what a “normal” year of rainfall looks like.