Texas is being forced to make some hard choices about its water use, reports StateImpact Texas. In 2011, Texas endured the worst single-year drought in its history. The current drought began in 2010.
StateImpact Texas has built an impressive interactive page on the drought, which you can view here.
Though the Lone Star State has experienced rain and even torrential flooding this year, that doesn’t mean the drought is over. More concerning, the conditions that caused the drought are only going to worsen in the future. Wildfires spread last year, destroying homes and charring thousands of square miles. In addition, billions were lost in agriculture revenues. In 2011 alone, agricultural losses ran to almost $8 billion.
Texas will have to change the way it approaches water usage if it wants to avoid these kinds of catastrophes in the future.