Shreveport Times: Take a truly regional approach to water needs

SYC sunfish, a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

From an editorial in the Shreveport Times Aug 28, 2011:

This area's increasing demand for water exacerbated by the ongoing drought, to paraphrase Caddo Commissioner Mike Thibodeaux, are helping form the perfect storm with no storm.

Combine these two factors with the millions in oil and natural gas riches and other funds the parish governing body has been socking away the past few years, and we have truly have an opportunity to begin to address our long-term water needs.

The need is imperative, given the recently state-declared emergency in two areas of south Caddo that rely on groundwater from the falling Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. There, some wells have gone dry and water levels in others have fallen by 5½ feet in three weeks. Observations at other test wells show a similar situation shaping up in the Greenwood area; and there have been reports of well levels dropping in north Caddo.

Even those reliant on surface water — Cross Lake (Shreveport) and Red River (Bossier City) — are not immune. For now the problem is not the availability of water but the ability to treat it fast enough to meet demand, which rises with the heat and as the drought continues.

See the remainder of the article at the Times.