State officials to study climate change along Rio Grande

AUSTIN -- Water in the Rio Grande is the lifeblood for farmer Johnny Stubbs' livelihood.

"Without surface water, there wouldn't be any farming community at all along the Rio Grande anywhere," said Stubbs, who grows cotton and other crops in El Paso County.

This year, state officials for the first time will study how climate changes affect the availability of water in the Rio Grande. A bill, by state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, requires the Texas Water Development Board to report those findings before the next legislative session in 2009.

"Every human needs water to survive," Shapleigh said. "Where, how, and at what cost we secure that water are some of the most important issues in Texas' future."

Other states, Shapleigh said, have already begun researching how increasing temperatures caused by global warming will impact natural resources.

In California, the studies have resulted in major changes, including strict limitations on pollution from cars and industry and new water management strategies, said Gregg Garfin, deputy directory for outreach at the University of Arizona's Institute for Study of Planet Earth.

"You have to go through these steps, gathering information and looking at policy initiatives, so that you can initially be prepared" when changes do occur, Garfin said.

Drastic rain events, followed by long dry periods, more severe erosion and warmer temperatures are what scientists expect along the Rio Grande in Texas, said John Zak, chairman of biological sciences at Texas Tech University, who has conducted field studies on climate change in Big Bend National Park since 1995.
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