Do You Believe All This "Running Out Of Water" Hype?

"We have the same amount of water now as we did when Noah was floating above Mt. Ararat."


"Lake Superior (the largest freshwater body on Earth) was too shallow to float cargo ships in the summer of 2009."*

I don't claim to understand how both of the above statements can be true.    But something is happening to water and it's not good.

A friend sent me this picture of a bridge project that is aimed at traffic congestion at the Hoover Dam.  Look behind the dam.  That white "bathtub ring on the banks of the Colorado river shows a 100' drop in water level.   That is huge! 


What is the solution?  Anyone that has studied economics at its most rudimentary level learned that demand and supply influence (dictate) price.  To mash up a quote from Will Rogers, "Buy (or save) water.  They're not making any more of it!"

*quoted from Robert Glennon's book, "Unquenchable: America's Water risis and What to Do About It"

I Went To A Green Conference The Other Day . . .

Let me jump to the chase.  The city of Waco has made changes to its waste water treatment facility that is saving $400,000 in gas, an additional $600,000 in electricity and they are dumping the water back into the Brazos river CLEANER than the water that's already there.  Not bad.  According to Kristy Wolter, the presenter, the Waco treatment plant is number 2 in the United States.   San Francisco has a plant that is even more efficient.  And this is supposed to be a bureaucracy!

So what does this have to do with irrigation in Texas?  

Is it an attitude?

The Waco treatment plant may not be saving water, but, if I am understanding them, they are taking  effluent, treating it so it turns back into an asset (soil amendments and clean water) and spending $1,000,000 less than the old way of doing it.   

It all seems so big.  Maybe you're selling and servicing sprinkler systems that costs a few thousand dollars.  If you can design a system and put a controller on it that has a brain,  you can coax, say, $350 a year in water savings.  If you multiply that savings to everyone in your town that has a sprinkler system, now you're talking about some cash. 

Irrigation CEU Classes Up For First Quarter

If you know of an irrigator or landscaper that wants to learn how to use Computer Aided Design (CAD), boy do I have a deal for them!  We just got the web site updated to include all our courses.  The enrollment process should be a lot easier with more reinforcing feedback. 

We have
CAD Class - Basic, one day, 8 hours of CEU credit from the TCEQ
CAD Class - Advanced, one day, 8 hours of CEU credit from the TCEQ
CAD Class - Combo, two days, 16 of CEU credit from the TCEQ
Business Skills - one day, 8 hours of CEU credit from the TCEQ
Identity Crisis - one day, 8 hours of CEU credit from the TCEQ

So, if you know of an irrigator, pass this along.  We will be teaching classes in Dallas/FortWorth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.   There's a $25 early bird discount for signing up 7 days before the class starts.  Too, there is an additional Alumni discount if they've taken one of our courses before.