The Vanishing Texas River

This past weekend, we made a trip to San Antonio, TX (we live in a western suburb of Houston).  This trip crosses several rivers, major and minor, as well as numerous streams (including what, in my opinion, is one of the most unique place-names in Texas: Woman Hollering Creek.)  I was rather looking forward to driving through squally weather from Tropical Storm Don, but, alas, that was not to be.  But I did get to observe the effects of the drought on waterways.  (unfortunately, no pictures)

First up, the Brazos River.  The Brazos is one of the most important rivers in Texas, with a sizeable watershed.    

The river has been quite lot for awhile, with numerous large sandbars.  Recent light to moderate rains have allowed grass to grow in the sandbars.

Next up, the San Bernard River. The San Bernard is not a large river at the best of time, just 100 miles long and draining less than 2,000 square miles of Texas.  The drought has taken quite a toll on this small river.  It was completely dry.  A month ago, on a different trip, we crossed the San Bernard  further south, and it was also dry there.  And by dry, I do mean I saw absolutely no water in the channel, at all.

The next major waterway was the Colorado River. This is one of the most important rivers in Texas, draining a sizable portion of the state.  

It is also one of the cleaner rivers in the state, as a decent part of its course flows through the Edwards Plateau, and the Llano Uplift.  Hence, it carries a lot of eroded limestone and granite with its heavy quartz load.  However, the Colorado looked very dirty where it crosses IH-10 near Columbus, and actually fairly stagnant.  Like the Brazos, it was full of sandbars, which I have never really seen in past years.

About 30 miles west of the Colorado, IH-10 cross the East and West Navidad Rivers, both forks of the Navidad River. The Navidad is even shorter than the San Bernard, and likewise drains a small part of the state:

I was unable to get a good look at the bed of the West Navidad River, but the East Navidad River appeared to be totally dry.  Crucially, the Navidad River supplies Lake Texana, a reservoir, which is well under 70% capacity, due to the drought.

The final few rivers on this trip, the San Marcos, and Guadalupe being the most important, are fed by the Edwards Aquifer, and actually did not appear to be in bad shape yet.  I was actually quite surprised about that.  Unfortunately, most of the smaller streams and creeks (too numerous to name) closer to San Antonio were totally dry.

Don, we could have used your help.