AUSTIN – Despite scattered rainfall, the Colorado River basin remains in a severe drought that is affecting water supply, LCRA staff told the Board of Directors this week. As a result, LCRA is considering whether to take additional drought management actions.
Within the past several weeks, LCRA has asked its wholesale water customers to implement mandatory watering restrictions, with the goal of a 25 percent reduction in water use. LCRA staff has already been talking to agricultural customers in the lower Colorado River basin to advise them of the possibility that water releases for irrigation could be sharply curtailed next year.
Taking additional steps may require LCRA to seek additional flexibility in how it manages its water supplies from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The flexibility may be needed, for example, if LCRA were to determine that the current drought is worse than the most severe drought the region has ever known, the 1947-1957 drought.
“Despite the recent rains, our region remains in a serious drought. LCRA experts are analyzing the unprecedented drought conditions of the past two years and the effects on water supply,” said LCRA General Manager Tom Mason. “We are evaluating whether we need to take different actions than would be allowed under the state-approved Water Management Plan.”
Mason said staff would be ready to come back to the LCRA Board of Directors with their recommendations in October.
If the current drought ultimately is worse than the drought of record, then all water users in the lower Colorado River basin will be affected, Mason said, including those who use water today and plan to use water in the future, as well as LCRA’s agricultural, municipal, and industrial customers.
Staff analysis, presented to LCRA’s Board of Directors at its Sept. 23 meeting, show that, at least in its intensity, the current drought is more intense than the drought of the 1950s. This record drought is the basis of LCRA’s state-approved Water Management Plan, which mandates LCRA take specific actions at various milestones over the course of a drought to stretch water supplies. These actions are designed to cope with a repeat of the drought of record.
Current conditions include record low volumes of water, or inflows, flowing from tributaries into the Highland Lakes, the region’s water supply reservoirs. In addition, the region has received below-normal rainfall for the past two years, the third driest such period on record, with only 35.25 inches of rain in Austin compared to 67 inches on average. Record high temperatures in 2008 and 2009 have also contributed to the intensity of the drought.
“When you look at how little water flowed into the Highland Lakes over the past two years, it shows that the intensity of this drought surpasses the worst drought our region has experienced,” Karen Bondy, manager of River Services, told the Board on Wednesday.
A two-year comparison of inflows, or the amount of water flowing into the Highland Lakes, shows a deficit of almost 400,000 acre-feet below the average inflows recorded during the 1950s drought. By comparison, the City of Austin draws for its municipal use about 160,000 acre-feet of water per year.
This significant deficit in inflows is the primary indicator of the intensity of the drought. What is different, so far, is the duration of the current drought, which has lasted almost three years compared to the 10 years of the drought of record.
“What we don’t know is how long the drought will continue,” Bondy said.
LCRA urges residents to continue following mandatory watering restrictions and taking steps to save water. Consider turning off automatic irrigation systems during the fall and winter months and install a rain sensor so that irrigation water is not wasted when it is raining.
For updates about drought conditions in the lower Colorado River basin visit www.lcra.org/droughtupdate.
