The history of LCRA

The history of LCRA
An era of changes and challenges

The 1970s and '80s posed some of the most formidable challenges LCRA had ever encountered.

One challenge was the energy crisis of the 1970s. The cost of natural gas — the fuel source for many of the power plants owned by Texas electric utilities — spiraled upward and would continue to climb throughout the decade, sharply driving up the cost of electricity.

LCRA and its customers were not immune from the price shock, as more than 80 percent of LCRA's generating capacity used natural gas. LCRA also faced the need to add capacity to meet the continually increasing demand for electricity. The solution was to build power plants that used coal, which was more economical and reliable than gas. In 1975 LCRA began construction of the Fayette Power Project in Fayette County. By 1988 it had built three coal-fired units at that site, which generated enough electricity to meet most of LCRA customers' needs. LCRA's other units provided the remaining power.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the national media "discovered" Austin as one of the most desirable places to live. The attention ushered an unprecedented boom for the region and transformed Austin into a major metropolitan center by the mid-1980s.

But the boom had devastating effects for the water quality of the Colorado River, as poor construction practices and runoff washed dirt, debris and chemicals from yards, streets and rural lands, threatening the pristine quality of the Highland Lakes. Downstream, poorly treated sewage from Austin's overwhelmed wastewater treatment plants turned the river into a mass of greenish slime.

Citizens and public officials pressured LCRA to do something. Over the years, LCRA had come to regard itself as primarily an electric utility. Its new challenge was to reclaim its charter responsibilities for taking care of the river.

As the City of Austin upgraded and expanded its treatment system, LCRA worked with the City to set new treatment standards that would remove most of the pollution from the effluent. LCRA also established nonpoint-source pollution ordinances designed to lessen the pollution and erosion that storms were washing into the Highland Lakes. By the late 1980s water quality throughout the river basin had recovered.

Responding to change
In recent years LCRA has responded to the needs of Central Texans by providing energy, water and community services.

Electricity continues to be LCRA's primary revenue source. It serves 43 cities and electric cooperatives that in turn serves more than a million Central Texas residents in 55 counties. LCRA's wholesale electric rates are among the lowest in Texas.

In 1995 LCRA pioneered the commercial development of wind-generated electricity, purchasing power from West Texas plants. The wind power, along with hydroelectric capacity, has made LCRA one of the state's largest providers of renewable energy.

In 1999 the Texas Legislature authorized LCRA to expand its transmission services outside its traditional service area. LCRA has teamed with other utilities to provide much-needed transmission services in South and West Texas to improve the flow of electricity throughout the state.

The 1990s saw LCRA expand into operating retail water and wastewater utilities. In the ensuing years, LCRA owned and operated as many as three dozen such utilities to help basin communities bring aging and overburdened utilities into compliance with state and federal clean-water standards and protect the basin's water quality. In November 2010 the LCRA Board voted to sell the utilities to enable LCRA to focus on its core responsibilities of managing the river, promoting conservation, and planning to meet the basin’s future water needs, as well as providing a balanced portfolio of electric generation resources, transmission services, and community services. By July 2012 LCRA had sold most of the utilities to various operators.

LCRA has responded to growing demand on the basin's limited water supplies. A Water Management Plan, developed by LCRA in consultation with key stakeholders and approved by the state, determines how LCRA operates the Highland Lakes and the lower Colorado River in a manner that best serves all water interests. By the late 1990s, LCRA had purchased additional irrigation operations in Colorado and Wharton counties, acquiring the last large blocks of privately held water rights on the Colorado River to ensure their beneficial use for the basin. LCRA and the San Antonio Water System are studying an interbasin project that would help meet the long-term water needs of both regions.

LCRA's Highland Lakes and dams successfully handled major floods in 1991, 1997 and 2002. The floods highlighted the degree to which people and development have increased in areas along the lakes and river known as floodplains. LCRA is helping local communities work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review floodplains.

LCRA has increased its services to its service-area communities, including training programs, grants and scholarships. To provide public access to the lakes and river, LCRA greatly expanded its network of parks. LCRA has more than 40 parks, natural science centers and access points throughout the basin. LCRA's commitment to environmental leadership not only includes protecting the river's water quality but also in setting high environmental standards in the way it operates its plants, dams and other facilities.

The people who created LCRA envisioned an organization that would not only provide water supplies, flood management and electricity but would also enrich the river valley through environmental and community services. Each day LCRA works to carry out that vision, with the goal that the lower Colorado River will continue to be an asset to the people of Texas.

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TIMELINE

Through the years: 1974 to present

August 1974 — The natural gas-fired Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant begins operation at Lake LBJ in Llano County. The plant is named for one of the original LCRA directors.

1974 — Faced with climbing natural gas prices, LCRA and City of Austin agree to build the Fayette Power Project in Fayette County. The plant will use coal instead of natural gas to fire its boilers.

1975 — Amendments to its enabling legislation allow LCRA to preserve wildlife and jointly own property and electric facilities. The LCRA Board is expanded to its present size of 15 directors.

1978 — Pedernales and Bluebonnet electric cooperatives end long-running agreements under which LCRA managed the co-ops' daily operations.

1979 — LCRA places Unit 1 of the Fayette Power Project into operation. Unit 2 will follow a year later; Unit 3 in 1988.

November 1981 — LCRA Chief Engineer Elof Soderberg is named LCRA's fifth general manager.

1982 — LCRA begins monitoring water quality throughout the lower Colorado River basin.

January 1983 — LCRA purchases Lakeside Irrigation Company and begins managing irrigation canals in Colorado and Wharton counties.

1985 — LCRA announces plans to to sell its retail electric operations in San Marcos, Kerrville and San Saba. By the end of the decade, the three cities will have purchased their local operations.

January 1986 — S. David Freeman, former chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority, becomes LCRA's sixth general manager.

1989 — LCRA implements a state-approved Water Management Plan that governs how it will allocate its water resources. The plan is the only one of its kind for any river basin in Texas.

August 1990 — LCRA Deputy General Manager Mark Rose is named LCRA's seventh general manager.

1991 — The Colorado River Trail, a system of parks designed to increase the public's access to the Colorado River, opens at Beason's Park on the Colorado in Columbus.

December 1991 — The "Christmas Flood" raises Lake Travis to its all-time peak elevation of 710.44 feet msl, less than 4 feet below the Mansfield Dam spillway.

1992 — LCRA begins operation of the Camp Swift Regional Wastewater Project near Bastrop.

1992 — LCRA begins operation of Buchanan Dam Water Treatment Project.

April 1993 — LCRA announces that the Colorado River downstream of Austin is once again safe for people to use and enjoy, following a coordinated effort by LCRA, communities, environmental groups and individuals to reverse the effects of pollution caused by population growth.

June 1994 — LCRA purchases the first component of what will become the West Travis County Regional Water System.

1995 — LCRA begins purchasing power from the Texas Wind Power Project. The wind plant is a joint effort among LCRA, Kenetech Corp. and the Texas General Land Office.

May 1995 — The Memorial Day Flood along Sandy Creek points to a need for more local emergency information. LCRA and the National Weather Service partner to install transmitters that broadcast regional versions of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards throughout the basin.

June 1997 — The Summer Flood of 1997 rivals the 1991 Christmas Flood in severity, but LCRA contains flooding within the floodplains. Floodwaters from Wirtz Dam create a gaping hole in the bedrock of Lake Marble Falls, requiring $4 million to repair.

September 1998 — LCRA opens the first of two premier outdoor facilities: McKinney Roughs Nature Park, an ecological paradise between Austin and Bastrop. The following summer, Canyon of the Eagles opens on Lake Buchanan.

October 1998 — Rains of up to 16 inches produce flooding downstream of Austin that is worse in some locations than during the Christmas Flood of 1991.

January 1999 — LCRA purchases the Garwood Irrigation Company, which holds the largest privately held block of water rights on the Colorado River.

October 1999 — LCRA and City of Austin officials sign an agreement to ensure adequate water supplies for the city for at least a 50-year period.

January 2000 — Joseph J. Beal, executive manager of LCRA's Water Services, becomes LCRA's eighth general manager.

May 2000 — LCRA completes its purchase of the Pierce Ranch water rights, the last remaining block of privately held water rights in the basin.

June 2001 — Lost Pines Unit 1 Power Project opens, adding more than 500 megawatts of capacity to LCRA's generating system. The unit is the first built and managed by an LCRA affiliate, GenTex Power Corporation, and the first owned jointly with a private company, the Calpine Corporation.

January 2002 — LCRA Transmission Services Corporation begins operations, in keeping with state legislation requiring electric utilities to separate their generation and transmission businesses.

February 2002 — LCRA and San Antonio Water System officials sign a historic agreement to develop water resources to be shared by the lower Colorado River basin and the San Antonio area.

April 2002 — LCRA ends its role as a retail electric provider with the transfer of its last remaining retail customer to Austin Energy.

September 2004 — LCRA completes a $50 million upgrade of four of the six Highland Lakes dams to increase their ability to withstand a "probable maximum flood."

2006 — LCRA opens Matagorda Bay Nature Park.

June 2007 — Mansfield Dam contains floodwaters from a 19-inch "rain bomb" in the Marble Falls area, protecting Austin and downstream residents.

November 2007 — LCRA General Counsel Thomas G. Mason is named LCRA's ninth general manager.

February 2010 — State regulators approve an updated LCRA Water Management Plan that provides greater restrictions on the use of “interruptible” water supplies for irrigation. Also, LCRA notes its 75th anniversary on Feb. 19.

October 2010 — The LCRA Board approves a Water Supply Resource Plan to help LCRA plan for and secure water supplies to meet the basin’s future needs to the year 2100.

November 2010 — The LCRA Board votes to sell its 32 rural and suburban water and wastewater utilities. Also, LCRA more than doubles its wind-power capacity by purchasing 200 megawatts from the Papalote Creek II wind power facility.

April 2011 — LCRA wins state approval of a permit to capture floodwaters and other high flows in the Colorado River downstream of Austin.

July 2011 — Becky Motal, LCRA’s executive manager of External Affairs, becomes LCRA’s 10th general manager and the organization’s first female chief executive.

October 2011 — The LCRA Board votes to settle a lawsuit with San Antonio Water System over the LCRA-SAWS Water Project. The two agencies agree to continue working together to find new water supplies.

March 2012 — For the first time, LCRA curtails irrigation water for most coastal farming operations, in accordance with drought relief measures developed with input from LCRA stakeholders the previous fall.

April 2012 — LCRA breaks ground on a new generating unit that will eventually replace the Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant.

May 2012 — LCRA holds the grand opening of the San Saba River Nature Park, completing a key goal of an LCRA park in each of LCRA’s 10 statutory counties.

July 2012 — LCRA has sold most of its water and wastewater utilities to various operators.

Go back: Through the Years: 1937-1973

Through the Years: Beginning

— Updated on August 8, 2012 at 09:07 AM —