DROUGHT SLIDESHOW

Click on image for a slideshow showing the effects of drought on the Highland Lakes going back to 1940.

— Historic photos from LCRA Corporate Archives

If the drought continues, the scenario this summer may be unfamiliar to thousands of Central Texans: much lower levels at lakes Buchanan and Travis, creating islands in the middle of Travis and leaving boat ramps high and dry.

For the 192,000 people who have moved into the Austin area over the past five years, this may be the first time they’ve seen lakes Buchanan and Travis at such low elevations. But it’s not the first time the lakes have been this low. As the major water-supply reservoirs in the Highland Lakes chain upstream of Austin on the Texas Colorado River, lakes Buchanan and Travis can fluctuate greatly from year to year.

Since their formation by LCRA in the late 1930s and early ‘40s, lakes Buchanan and Travis have fluctuated largely in response to the cycle of rainy and dry weather that affects Texas and the southwestern United States. When the rains come, the lakes fill up and stay at or near full elevation, as they’ve done for much of the past five years.

But eventually the rains go away, as during the major drought cycles of recent history. The Colorado River basin experienced a decade-long “drought of record” in the 1940s and ‘50s, and encountered extended drought periods in the mid-1960s, the early to mid-1980s, and in 1999 and 2000, as well. And there were shorter dry spells in between.

Each dry period dropped the levels of Travis and Buchanan significantly, and in the 1950s and early ‘60s the lakes dropped to levels that are almost unbelievable compared to more recent history.

All-time lows hit in 1950s
The lakes reached their all-time low elevations in the early 1950s during the drought of record. Lake Travis fell to 614.18 feet above mean sea level (msl) in August 1951 – almost 70 feet below its full elevation. Lake Buchanan hit its all-time low a year later: 983.70 feet msl in September 1952, almost 40 feet below its full elevation.

(For perspective: Travis’ all-time low is roughly 50 feet lower – and Buchanan’s roughly 30 feet lower – than the two lakes’ elevations in late January of this year.)

During the 1950s and early ‘60s, Lake Travis hit its five lowest elevations (see table), all in the lower 600s. Drought was the main factor, but a secondary influence may have been hydroelectric generation, LCRA’s primary power source at the time. Demand for electricity may have required LCRA to generate from its six Highland Lakes dams almost around the clock, releasing water from the lakes and discharging it downstream through the power houses.

LCRA did try to mitigate the drop in the two lakes. It experimented with cloud seeding to increase the rain. And it installed a pump at the Buchanan Dam power house to draw water from Inks Lake downstream and recycle it for hydroelectric generation. Neither effort was successful.

(Today, LCRA has several fossil-fueled power plants that provide most of its electric power needs. As a result, hydroelectric generation is a byproduct of LCRA’s lake operations, as LCRA primarily manages Buchanan and Travis to meet the basin’s water needs. Whenever LCRA releases water from the dams for downstream water customers, the water passes through the power stations, generating electricity.)

1980s drought dropped lakes to 20-year lows
Since LCRA began building fossil-fueled power plants in the 1960s, the drawdown at Lake Travis has not been as deep. But by 1984 a two-year drought had dropped Travis and Buchanan to their lowest elevations in two decades. Public boat ramps at Lake Travis were unusable, while visitors at Lake Buchanan could walk on the dry lakebed almost to the arches at Buchanan Dam.

A dry spell through much of 1996 threatened to send the lakes to their 1984 lows, but a tropical storm cut short the dry weather. The drought resumed in earnest in 1999, and by October the next year, Buchanan and Travis were hovering close to their 1984 lows.

Then the rains came – and stayed, keeping the two lakes at or near full capacity for better than a four-year period, and lulling many area residents into a sense that the lakes are always full.

In a presentation last month to the LCRA Board of Directors, Paul Thornhill, deputy general manager for Water Services, estimated that during the past five years, the metropolitan Austin area has grown by about 15 percent, or almost 200,000 people. And among them, “many of those newcomers probably have never seen lakes Buchanan and Travis significantly less than full,” he said.

Thornhill noted that the region’s population has doubled since the low lake levels of 1984. And only the oldest of longtime residents are likely to recall the all-time lows of the early 1950s. Which is why, if the drought continues to drop the levels of Travis and Buchanan, this year, there may be a lot of consternation from lake residents and visitors.

But as some longtime residents have observed, Central Texas weather is one long drought interrupted by the occasional flood. In each of the drought cycles, the rains returned, refilling Buchanan and Travis – in many instances, to overflowing levels. The lakes eventually will be full again. The trick lies in waiting for it to happen.

Williams is a senior writer at LCRA. Contact him at john.williams@lcra.org.

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