Water School

 Water conservation is especially important in Texas because the state has experienced periods of droughts since the Texas government first began recording droughts in 1870. The most recent intense drought happened between 2010 and 2015. This drought was defined as an exceptional drought characterized by exceptional and widespread crop loss, seafood, forestry, tourism, and agriculture sectors reporting significant financial loss and areas experiencing extreme sensitivity to fire dange...

Yes, golden algae is present in parts of the basin year round. However, the great majority of the time it is at such a level that it has not caused a threat to fish in a few years. Golden alga, or Prymnesium parvum, a naturally occurring alga that can have a devastating effect on fish, persists in small amounts throughout the year in the Brazos River basin, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Texas is the only known place known to date that deals with golden alga inla...

With a few exceptions, a permit is required to install a septic system in Texas. The Legislature, in the Health and Safety Code, designates the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) as the official agent to investigate and decide whether to approve a permit request.The commission is also tasked with overseeing whether the septic tanks continue to function properly and the Commission can require the property owner make repairs when needed.However, the law allows the Commission to desig...

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...

A 500-year flood is a high streamflow that overflows the natural or artificial banks of a waterway and has a two-tenths of 1% chance of occurring in any given year.