Municipal conjunctive water use on the texas high plains

On the semiarid, water-short High Plains of West Texas, cities often make conjunctive use of water from widely dispersed sources, specifically groundwater from the dwindling Ogallala aquifer and the meager flow of streams rising in or crossing the area. Nineteen High Plains towns and cities, including Lubbock and Amarillo, receive most of their water supply from municipal water authorities which distribute surface water from Lake Meredith and the much smaller Mackenzie and White River reservoirs to a population of almost 500,000. Most of these communities continue to use preexisting groundwater reserves to improve quality or supplement their surface supply, and the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority has acquired extensive groundwater rights so that it can augment and improve the quality of water it dispenses from Lake Meredith. Although Texas water law has hindered rather than encouraged this conjunctive use, integrated water use, if not integrated water management, is widely practiced on the High Plains.