Texas Drought Forces a Town to Sip From a Truck

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"SPICEWOOD BEACH, Tex. — The water that once nourished this central Texas community never traveled far: it came from a fenced-in well at the edge of Lake Travis, down a winding street next to the golf course. These days, the water that flows from kitchen and bathroom faucets takes an extraordinary journey that can be measured not in feet but in miles.

This drought-stricken place in the scenic hills outside Austin has been forced to bring in water by truck from more than 10 miles away because its sole well came close to running out of water. Spicewood Beach is one of four subdivisions in Burnet County that became the first communities in Texas to run so low on water that it had to be hauled in by truck. The four subdivisions, made up of about 1,100 people in a part of Texas known as the Hill Country, all relied on the Spicewood Beach well.

Several times a day, a truck carrying 4,000 gallons of treated water from another subdivision has pulled up to a beige storage tank in Spicewood Beach. Workers pump the water from the truck to the tank through a long green hose. A crowd of reporters and residents watched the first delivery on Monday. But by Wednesday morning, the deliveries had become a part of life here, and no one watched as the water that residents use to wash dishes and take their showers flowed out of a truck from an aptly named company, H2O2U."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/texas-drought-forces-town-to-haul-in-water-by-truck.html?_r=1&ref=earth

[JohnnyRingo]

1. I'm very sad and concerned for Texans faced with this devastating drought.

I don't purport to have a short term solution, but certainly it's time to wake up and accept climate change as a partial cause and move in the direction of remedy. Consevatives have kept their heads buried in the sand long enough on this issue, and it's time to overrule them for the sake of our future. Hopefully, they haven't drug their heels too long already.

I recall that Rick Perry, in leiu of any meaningful action, gathered like minded conservatives at a mass prayer for rain last year. Needless to say nothing came from that plea other than an opportunity for Perry to stand before voters with his eyes shut tightly and brow furrowed as he tried to look like a religious mentor. God doesn't hate you Texas, and you aren't being smited for liberal sins. Prayer didn't work, and it's past time we all look to scientists instead of the clergy. C'mon America, get rid of these feel good / do nothing politicians nationwide and demand real action.

Why does no one question Rick Perry and ask why he doesn't have a plan B? If the Texas death chamber was out of order he wouldn't pray that God fix it, he'd do something.