Water School

Indirect re-use is the use of treated wastewater for beneficial re-use taken after the wastewater has been discharged to a watercourse.

Direct reuse is the use of treated wastewater for beneficial re-use.  Direct re-use is taken directly from a wastewater treatment plant via pipeline and is not discharged to a watercourse.

Conjunctive use is the coordinated management of surface water and groundwater supplies to maximize the yield of water resource.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) operates eight flood control reservoirs within the Brazos River basin that, through a contract with the federal government, also serve as water supply impoundments for the Brazos River Authority system of reservoirs.Lakes Proctor, Whitney, Aquilla, Belton, Stillhouse Hollow, Georgetown, Granger, and Somerville store water for use by municipal, agricultural, industrial, and mining use.Similar to the Authority’s three water supply reservoirs, water cont...

Allens Creek Reservoir is a planned water storage lake permitted for construction on Allens Creek, a tributary of the Brazos River, in Austin County. The permit to build the lake was originally issued to Houston Lighting and Power (Reliant Energy) in 1974 by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, now known as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).The reservoir was originally to have served as a cooling lake for a nuclear power plant. When Reliant Energy abandoned plan...

Unappropriated water is the state water remaining in a watercourse that is available for appropriation (ie permitting) under the rules of TCEQ.  Or in other words, it is the amount of water that could be available for use from a water source after all existing water rights have been fully taken into account.