Texas Almanac, 1954-1955 Page: 159
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WATER RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION
and those provided by nature underground,
is largely the rainfall on the surface of Tex-
as. In some states great supplies of water
are delivered to their boundaries by rivers
that collect their currents beyond the state's
borders. But Texas must very largely depend
upon the water that falls upon its surface.
The Rio Grande brings some water from
Colorado and New Mexico. Three fourths of
the flow below El Paso comes from Mexico.
The Pecos delivers some water to Red Bluff
Reservoir from New Mexico. The Red and the
Sabine derive some of their flow respectively
from Oklahoma and Louisiana; and the Pecos,
Canadian and Brazos receive varying amounts
from New Mexico. (See below for paragraphs
on these basins.)
On the water "export" side, Texas delivers
some of its drainage (1) to Arkansas and
Louisiana through the Red River and the Sul-
phur and Cypress basins; (2) to Louisiana
from the upper Sabine drainage in Northeast
Texas, and (3) to Oklahoma from the Cana-
dian and North Canadian drainage in the
Panhandle. Howev er, Texas has a small
"favorable trade balance" in the matter of
water exchange, largely because all of the
water for the El Paso Valley comes from
Colorado and New Mexico while three fourths
of that in the lower channel comes from
Mexico. This ''favorable balance" amounts to
less than 5 per cent of the Texas surface
water supply.
There is also very little flow of under-
ground water across the Texas boundary line.
The theory is sometimes advanced that the
great reservoir under the Staked Plain is
supplied from sources in the Rocky Moun-
tains, or from the formations that underlie
the Great Plains in slates above the Pan-
handle. But these conditions are not accepted
by geologists, except a small flow in bothdirections for short distances along the Texas-
New Mexico line.
It may be concluded that at least 95 per
cent of the net supply of water to Texas
rivers and its surface and subterranean res-
ervoirs comes from rain that falls on Texas'
surface.
Amount of Water Precipitated.
The amount of this rainfall through the
years over the entire state averages '27.70
inches. The greatest average rainfall re-
corded in Texas at any station of the Weather
Bureau is 56.13 inches annually at Bon Weir,
Newton County, in extreme Southeast Texas.
The lowest is 7.83 inches at El Paso in the ex-
treme west.
This average rainfall on the 168,732,160
acres of land area. gives the state an annual
supply of 389,490,069 acre-feet. It is difficult
to say how much of this water reaches the
Gulf (or boundary line where the Red and
other rivers flow out of the state before
reaching the Gulf.) The calculation invohles
exact determination of the contributions from
the Texas surface in the interstate and inter-
national rivers. Furthermore the lowest gages
are considerably above the mouth of some of
the rivers. But the total of the average flow
in the lower channels indicates that about
41,000,000 acre-feet of "Texas" water (about
11 per cent) runs out of the state annually
either into the Gulf or into other states. Part
of the remaining 89 per cent goes into the
great underground reservoirs. There is no
estimate of how much. By far the greater
part of it is evaporated from the ground,
*This is the weighted average as computed re-
cently by the regional office of the U.S. Weather
Bureau, Houston. Previously the flat average, as
computed by the U.S. Weather Bureau, has been
used in the Texas Almanac. It was 30.25 inches.
tAn acre-foot is sufficient water to cover an
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Texas Almanac, 1954-1955, book, 1953; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117168/m1/161/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.