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This research had two objectives. The first was to explain the ideal components of amunicipal drought contingency plan. The elements include public involvement, drought responsetriggering criteria, successive stages of response, drought response management measures, enforcement,and plan adoption. The second objective is to assess the drought contingency plans of retail public watersuppliers submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to determine whichretail public water suppliers utilized the model drought contingency plan and how close all the plans metthe ideal components. The overall assumption of this research is that the model drought contingency plandeveloped by the TCEQ is an effective tool for retail public water suppliers in Texas to aid them inmeeting the regulatory components of drought contingency plans.The first portion of this research examines, from a national level, the concept of drought, drought impacts,future impacts facing municipal public water suppliers, problems with traditional drought planning,drought policy, and lessons learned from previous droughts. A conceptual framework for a municipaldrought contingency plan is developed from the review of available literature. The purpose of the reviewis to explain the components of an ideal plan.The paper later focuses on Texas, the setting for this research. A brief overview of Texas droughts andprojections are presented. A description is provided for both the model drought contingency plan and themunicipal drought contingency plans selected for assessment.The later part of the paper discusses the methodology used to assess the municipal drought contingencyplans submitted to the TCEQ by retail public water suppliers in Texas. Content analysis is used todetermine which municipal public water suppliers utilized the TCEQ model drought contingency plan indeveloping their plans and which did not. After determining which suppliers utilized the model, contentanalysis is further used for each of the drought contingency plans to determine which ideal componentsare included in all of the plans. A discussion of how the practical ideal type of a municipal droughtcontingency plan is operationalized into measurable items for assessment is provided. The findings of theanalysis confirm that the model plan in Texas is an effective tool for retail public water suppliers inmeeting the required components of drought contingency plans.The paper concludes with a summary of the research findings in relation to the practical ideal type of themodel drought contingency plan in Texas and concludes with recommendations and suggestions foradditional research. Includes 32 references, tables.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/11/2004 Number of Pages: 34File Size: 1 file , 530 KB