SAN ANTONIO — Central Texas is seeing the worst drought conditions it has seen in a decade. It’s causing rivers to slow to a crawl and the impact of that could be disastrous.
“We definitely have some concerns with where the water level’s going to get too later in the year, if we don't start getting some level of consistent rain,” said Shaun Donovan, Environmental Sciences Manager at the San Antonio River Authority.
There are places in south Texas right now where the flow of the river all but stops.
“There's been reports of the Frio River is at 0.0 CFS, so it's not flowing at all right now,” Donovan said. “There was a lot of concerns and issues with the Guadalupe River, especially above Canyon Lake where they can't control the flow.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of Bexar County is in drought level D3, that’s out of four. Historically, this level, classified as Extreme Drought, has meant an increased risk of wildfires, severe loss of plant and wildlife, and very low river flows. The last time Bexar County was this dry was during the drought of 2011, when the entire state was at D4 – Exceptional Drought.
“Our treatment plants, whether it's, you know, most of that water is coming from SAWS, some of that water is coming from River Authority treatment facilities, helps mitigate those extreme ends of dry river conditions in our base and more so than a lot of other places.”
Shaun Donovan said the treatment plants in their system puts the San Antonio River in a better place than other rivers in the state, but it’s still not a good place.
“It's times like these, it's about mitigating loss,” he said. “Loss of habitat for fish, loss of fish themselves, loss of system productivity.”
He says the drought has created a vicious cycle: slowing the water and making it easier to evaporate in the intense summer heat. He says it also lowers the level of oxygen in the water.
“Fish need to breathe that dissolved oxygen. Muscles need to breathe that. Plants need dissolved oxygen,” said Donovan.