• Home
  • About
    • TWJ People
    • Policies
    • Ethics/Conflict of Interest
    • Journal Sponsorship
    • About this Publishing System
    • Support TWJ
  • Volumes
    • Current Volume 2020
      • Article
      • Policy Review
      • Book Review
      • Program Review
    • Past Volumes
      • Volume 1
      • Volume 2
        • Errata Vol. 2
      • Volume 3
      • Volume 4, Number 1
        • Errata Vol. 4, No. 1
      • Volume 4, Number 2
      • Volume 5
      • Volume 6
      • Volume 7
      • Volume 8
      • Volume 9
      • Volume 10, Number 1
  • Submissions
  • Webinars
  • Forums
  • Support
  • Contact
    • Contact Editor-in-Chief
    • Contact Managing Editor
Contact@twj.media
Texas Water JournalTexas Water Journal
  • Home
  • About
    • TWJ People
    • Policies
    • Ethics/Conflict of Interest
    • Journal Sponsorship
    • About this Publishing System
    • Support TWJ
  • Volumes
    • Current Volume 2020
      • Article
      • Policy Review
      • Book Review
      • Program Review
    • Past Volumes
      • Volume 1
      • Volume 2
        • Errata Vol. 2
      • Volume 3
      • Volume 4, Number 1
        • Errata Vol. 4, No. 1
      • Volume 4, Number 2
      • Volume 5
      • Volume 6
      • Volume 7
      • Volume 8
      • Volume 9
      • Volume 10, Number 1
  • Submissions
  • Webinars
  • Forums
  • Support
  • Contact
    • Contact Editor-in-Chief
    • Contact Managing Editor

Exploring Groundwater Recoverability in Texas: Maximum Economically Recoverable Storage

By Justin C. Thompson, Charles W. Kreitler, and Michael H. Young

Exploring Groundwater Recoverability in Texas: Maximum Economically Recoverable Storage

December 10, 2020 Article, Article Vol 11, Vol 11 (2020), Vol 11 (2020)

The 2017 Texas state water plan projects total supply deficits of 4.8 and 8.9 million acre-feet under drought-of-record conditions by the year 2020 and 2070, respectively, driven by a growing population concurrent with declining available water supplies. Reductions in groundwater supply account for 95% of anticipated declines in total water supply. Meanwhile, restrictive groundwater management plans may be creating a regulation-induced shortage of groundwater in Texas, given the significant groundwater storage volumes that are unutilized under many management plans. However, these estimates do not account for many of the physical and none of the economic constraints to groundwater recoverability. We report an analysis of groundwater extraction feasibility and simulate maximum economically recoverable storage for conditions representative of the central section of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer under economic constraints associated with agricultural uses. Two key limitations are applied to simulate recoverability: (1) the value of water pumped relative to pumping costs and (2) the capacity of the aquifer and well to meet demand. Our results indicate that these constraints may limit certain uses to as little as 1% of current groundwater availability estimates. We suggest that Texas groundwater managers, stakeholders, and policymakers assessing groundwater availability need an alternate approach for estimating recoverability.

© 2020 Justin C. Thompson, Charles W. Kreitler, and Michael H. Young. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Download PDF
Tags: groundwater availabilitygroundwater recoverabilitymaximum economically recoverable storageMERSpumping costsTERStotal estimated recoverable storage

SUPPORT TWJ

Follow TWJ on Twitter

Tweets by @txwaterjournal

Subscribe Now

Submit an Article or Commentary

Online Submissions

Water Calendar

Click for

Listen to Talk+Water Podcasts

Advertisment

TWJ on Facebook

TWJ Social Media

Contact TWJ

  • Todd Votteler, Ph.D.
  • Editor-in-Chief
  • Texas Water Journal
  • todd@texaswaterjournal.org

Contact Us

We're currently offline. Send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Send Message
Support the Texas Water Journal (ISSN 2160-5319) Donate Here

Key Words

groundwater availability (1)groundwater recoverability (1)maximum economically recoverable storage (1)MERS (1)pumping costs (1)TERS (1)total estimated recoverable storage (1)

© 2017-2021 · Texas Water Journal - Website by Rudolph Rosen, Ph.D., Professional Nonprofit Management Group, LLC.

  • TWJ People
  • Policies
  • Submissions
  • Support TWJ
  • Terms of Use
Prev Next