AUSTIN — A slow drawdown of Lake Austin is scheduled to begin on Jan. 2 and continue until the level of Lake Austin has fallen about 12 feet by the end of January. LCRA is lowering Lake Austin for six weeks this winter at the request of the City of Austin to help control fast-growing hydrilla and other nuisance aquatic plants in the lake.

LCRA and City of Austin officials have carefully planned the slow drawdown in order to conserve water during this time of drought. During the drawdown, scheduled releases of water will be made from Lake Austin rather than the Highland Lakes. As a result, lakes Travis and Buchanan will hold back as much as 13,000 acre-feet of water that would otherwise have been released to supply drinking water to Austin and western Travis County and to meet downstream environmental needs during the drawdown. When Lake Austin is refilled during the second week of February, only the water that would otherwise have been released to meet local and downstream needs will be used to bring Lake Austin back to its typical operating level.

“There will not be an impact to water supply, lake levels or downstream river conditions because no more water will be released with the drawdown than there would have been without the drawdown,” said Mark Jordan, LCRA river management services manager.

LCRA has lowered Lake Austin at the City of Austin’s request, usually every other year, since the 1950s to help curb the growth of nuisance aquatic plants and to allow lakeside residents to perform construction and maintenance.
Because LCRA could have to raise the lake quickly in an emergency, lakeside residents should remain aware of the lake level when performing work and remove equipment and tools from the shoreline when not in use.

The lake drawdowns help control hydrilla and other nuisance vegetation by exposing the plants to the air and killing off the leaves and stems by dehydration, providing temporary relief, particularly in the shallower areas where the plants are exposed. Since the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department first discovered hydrilla, a fast-growing water weed, in Lake Austin in 1999, lowering the lake has been one component of an ongoing comprehensive plan to fight the plant. While hydrilla has been less of a problem in recent years in Lake Austin, it has begun to spread again in some areas of the lake.

Besides controlling hydrilla, the drawdown will target another nonnative plant, called Eurasian watermilfoil, which currently is the predominant water weed in Lake Austin. Before hydrilla showed up in Lake Austin, the drawdowns mainly targeted Eurasian watermilfoil, which is commonly known as duckweed.