In, some farming districts on the Lower Colorado River were cut off from water for irrigation for the first time. Reservoirs were too low to flood tens of thousands of rice fields. Some asked, 鈥淲hy would anyone be farming rice in Texas in the first place?鈥�
The answer is long, and it begins with the fact that parts of Texas haven鈥檛 always been dry. For farmers like Ronald Gertson, who r through rice fields as a child, recent years have been hard to bear.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just unbelievable that it鈥檚 been so bad that we have had three unprecedented years in a row, and I recognize some experts say we could have a couple of decades like this. I hope and pray that鈥檚 not the case,鈥� says Gertson, a rice farmer, chair of numerous water-related committees and, in , unofficial for the Texas Rice Belt. 鈥淚f that is the case then yeah, this whole prairie is going to change.鈥�
But it has already changed.
Following the Colorado River, heading south on State Highway 71, the hilly woods of Central Texas give way to a vibrant green coastal flatland about a hundred miles from the coast. This is the Rice Belt. Almost all of the land here has been tilled for farming, but along the river鈥檚 banks, the old biome is still evident. Tall billowing trees and a thicket of vegetation grows enveloped by vines in the deep, squishy mud.
This is the state鈥檚 鈥� a vast accumulation of sediment, slowly left behind during ages of floods. From the high Hill Country, the Colorado River to the flatlands, extending Texas鈥� coastline over millions of years. The region was literally created by water.
The floodplain of the Colorado River Basin was a part of Stephen F. Austin鈥檚 from the Mexican government, and it was here that some of the first pioneers from Europe and the United States came to settle . They found a soggy marsh where the Karankawa people procured vital mosquito repellant from the fat of local alligators, and they saw massive floods that covered miles of prairie with water from rains in higher parts of the state.
The region was a collection of humble backwoods settlements until the turn of the 20th century, when was brought over from Louisiana. , suited to the fine shallow of the floodplain, with , and the Texas Rice Belt was born. In 1901, the first pumping station was built on the Colorado River in and the town of was founded to suit. By 1914, there were stations in and counties, and hundreds of miles of canals were dug to move water across the prairie.
鈥淭oday I believe it can truthfully be said that has done more to redeem this low level and country of the Texas coast than any other branch of agriculture,鈥� wrote, a Houston-based magazine in 1906. 鈥淎s rice requires more water than anything else to grow it, here was a and a country that were adapted to each other.鈥�
Today that is not the case; the Rice Belt needs water, and there isn鈥檛 much to go around.
Born 1931 in , Anthony Kallina remembers driving a Model A Ford on the one-lane dirt road that eventually became State Highway 71.
鈥淚t used to be that every time there鈥檇 be heavy rains anywhere around Austin, the river would come out of bank. Of course, Garwood is on the high bank so we didn鈥檛 really flood, but right across the ridge the river might be a mile and a half wide. In earlier days, it was even wider than that,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 been out in a good while now. We haven鈥檛 had many rains, and they鈥檝e been keeping the floods up above in the lakes.鈥�
He guesses that the last big flood was around 20 years ago. Here鈥檚 an important detail to understand the drastic change: When Kallina was born, there were six million people in Texas. Today, there are and hundreds of communities on the Colorado River system. Eight and at least 14 dams have been built on the river and its tributaries in Kallina鈥檚 life.
The river each until the late 1930s, when the newly created Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) built with money from a program. Early projects sought to tame the ravenous floods that and to harness the wild river for electrical generation. Quickly, though, the need to store water for the growing population became apparent. By 1951, the LCRA finished the six reservoirs and dams known as the , which for over a million people in Central Texas today.
In subsequent decades, the LCRA expanded its control as water stressed the importance of in Texas. 鈥淸Garwood] had the oldest right to the water, but the owner, Lehrer Interests, in the 1990s,鈥� said Lehrer Interests CEO . 鈥淭he other irrigation districts had been bought out in earlier decades, and the water authority took full authority of the region鈥檚 infrastructure."
After buying the water rights, the LCRA legally owned the water in the Colorado River. They agreed to charge the same rates that farmers had previously paid irrigation companies. Because farmers held the oldest water rights, and naturally got water before dams were built, they were not asked to pay for the infrastructure upkeep that guaranteed water supply to cities upstream.
So each year the authority released billions of gallons of irrigation water, the , for a fraction of the price that municipal customers paid.
Lehrer Interests managed to keep Garwood鈥檚 guarantee to water in the reservoirs, 鈥渂ecause Mr. Lehrer had a very good lawyer,鈥� says Savino. But other districts did not. By contract, districts in Wharton and Matagorda counties could be denied irrigation water if the Highland Lakes ever fell to critical levels, around 40 percent full. Most never thought they鈥檇 see that happen.
Texas has seen droughts before, most notably in the and , that have generally struck a decade or more apart. But in the , a dry spell , setting off a sequence of dramatically and periods. The state saw one of its rainiest years in and its driest in . That same driest year, farmers in the Rice Belt with over 100 billion gallons like they鈥檇 done for 100 years. But for several years.
In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the great rains to , but the . Levels stayed under 40 percent, hitting the second lowest point ever in September 2013. For the last three years, most of the Rice Belt .
The once-wild river from which farmers draw their livelihood now from the base of the Longhorn Dam in Austin to Matagorda Bay on the Gulf. The LCRA sends reservoir water downstream to , a and several cities, so the river bed doesn鈥檛 dry out. But overall, than ever before.
鈥淚f you , you鈥檙e looking at places where the river has been stagnant, algae vegetation has grown in it, and the river has basically stopped,鈥� said Kirby Brown, a biologist with the , at an LCRA board meeting in June.
Like the river, the economy in the Rice Belt isn鈥檛 what it used to be. When water was cut for the first year, farmers were relieved to learn that would cover their losses, but other businesses like crop dusters, storage facilities and tractor depots that also rely on the harvest for income . The that Kallina has owned since 1955 is processing about half of what he says it should.
鈥淚t鈥檚 depressing; it really is,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ecause so many of our businesses closed. All those empty buildings there鈥� It hurts.鈥�
In 2011, Matagorda County planted about 22,000 acres of rice. But without water in 2012, that number fell to .
Mitch Thames, Director of the in Matagorda County, says that even local gas stations, grocery stores and car dealerships are feeling the economic losses without a rice harvest in the community. Farm equipment repair shops have lost about 70 percent of their business in Bay City, and one family鈥檚 three-generation crop-dusting business has closed completely, says Thames.
鈥淲e see that the drought is causing the economic problems that we鈥檙e seeing in Bay City and it has been far-reaching. We are feeling the devastation,鈥� says Thames.
Farmers know that crop insurance will eventually end. Many have and some have found success. But for people like Gertson who patties, such big adjustments aren鈥檛 quickly made.
鈥淚 am extremely concerned about this tradition, but I鈥檓 not tied to rice. If we can figure a way out to grow something else and make a living off of it, we鈥檒l do it, and we鈥檙e trying,鈥� says Gertson.
Wharton County has managed to maintain of its standard rice crop since 2012 with water from the . Gertson, who chairs the , estimated that 65 new wells have recently been drilled in Wharton County, some operating for the first time this year. The aquifer , he says, but there鈥檚 a limit to how fast.
鈥淚 am fearful that the level of pumpage that all of these new wells are calling for is not sustainable over the long haul, that we are going to be pumping water out at a faster rate than it can recharge,鈥� he says.
Forecasters on how long this drought will last or if current conditions may be a new normal for the state. Rains may pick up, the reservoirs may fill and things may be back to normal in the Rice Belt soon. But Gertson acknowledges the possibility that they . In that case, he expects the rice fields to be sold as grazing pasture for cattle 鈥� worth just a fraction the price of land that can nourish crops.
Over a hundred years, the Rice Belt changed from a soggy landscape graced with mighty floods to a place where wells are drilled ever deeper in search of water. No one knows what the future holds, but someday many Texans may share the farmers鈥� memories of a time when precious water came easy.
