Texas lawmakers focus on water conservation amid growing demand and drought

preparing for next year's session are looking at possible legislation to preserve the state's water resources. The state is seeing more demand but . And the fear of not having enough water is a concern all across Texas.

In some areas of Texas it's already a water crisis. In far South Texas, the last remaining this year because they felt they just didn't have the water to support it. And here in Central Texas we would have been in a world of hurt right now if we hadn't gotten this summer.

Lake Travis and our Highland Lakes are the main water supply for Austin and other cities. Water management officials recommend increasing water conservation efforts now to help keep the lake levels up for the future.

John Hofmann with the Lower Colorado River Authority , "I'm not talking about the food that we cook for our families and water that we bathe our children with. You start looking at the landscape watering and the amount of water that's being used on nonessential things, and you really start to get very focused on trying to eliminate those as much as possible. That represents a great deal of water."

On Tuesday, the will meet to look at the water situation in Texas to make suggestions to lawmakers on how they can improve things. Among the topics they're exploring today, "expanding the reuse of waters" in Texas as an additional water supply and improving monitoring and planning for use of groundwater infrastructure.

And they're not just studying quantity but quality. The panel will also evaluate the causes, durations, and incidence of "boil water notices" to consider whether policy changes are necessary to prevent interruption to the public's access to clean, reliable drinking water.