Latest News
West’s Drought and Growth Intensify Conflict Over Water Rights
March 2014
MUMFORD, Tex. — Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an increasingly dear treasure — water.
Texas ranchers hit hard by drought eye rebuilding
January 2014
LUBBOCK, Texas – After a dispiriting stretch of years, many Texas ranchers are optimistic as drought, expensive feed and other conditions that decimated their cattle herds start to loosen their grip. But rebuilding their herds will be neither cheap nor a short-term process, even in the nation's top cattle-producing state.
West Texas Drought
2014
A New Drought
With the recent drought, Lubbock citizens are beginning to feel the negative effe
Laura Lenfest is a master’s student and teaching assistant at Tech in the department of atmospheric science.
Lenfest said rainfall is crucial to the environment, especially in West Tex
“Whatever needs water here on the surface all depends on two things” Lenfest said, “and that’s evaporation and amount of rainfall that we get.”
Lenfest said the evaporation has overcome the amount of rainfall the area is getting and has caused the void known as a drought.
For some, the drought affects more than their environment, it affects their income.
Sid Cervantes is a senior ranch management major at Tech. He helps run his family’s ranch in Jal, N.M.
Cervantes said his ranch is 56 sections and can hold a large amount of cows. He said the drought has caused his family to drop the number of cows from 600 to 200.
“We had to sell off almost all of our cows because of the drought” Cervantes said. “We don’t have enough grass to feed all the cows.”
Cervantes said the number of cattle is not the only thing that is hurting. He said the aquifers around the area have been aching also.
An aquifer is an underground water source ranchers use to pull water from to fill their stock tanks, Cervantes said. With little rainfall, these aquifers cannot produce the appropriate amount of water.
Cervantes recalled a conversation he had with an elderly man. Cervantes said the man had never seen a drought as bad as it is now since the Dust Bowl.
Lenfest said there is no way to tell when the drought will come to an end, but citizens can help by conserving water so it can be enjoyed by all.
“It’s the idea of trying to conserve water so that other people can use it when they need it” Lenfest said.
