The Colorado River, known in downtown Austin as Lady Bird Lake, passes through the heart of Austin. The river is the main source of drinking water for Austinites.

agreement Quick facts • Austin water rights total about 330,000 acre-feet of water per year. • LCRA water rights total about 2.1 million acre-feet of water per year. • Austin uses about 160,000 acre-feet per year for municipal purposes. • Austin discharges about 100,000 acre-feet per year of return flows to the Colorado River from two wastewater treatment plants. • The City of Austin expects to need additional water supplies by 2050. Read the document: LCRA and the City of Austin have approved the supplement water supply agreement.(PDF) Highlights: Executive summary on the agreement.(PDF) Video on how Austin and LCRA agree on sharing return flows from wastewater facilities

The Austin City Council approved the water supply agreement at its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 8. The LCRA Board of Directors approved the agreement on Aug. 22.

A Water Partnership
LCRA and the City of Austin have established a more formal, collaborative framework, which they call the Water Partnership, under which they will work together to evaluate opportunities to manage water supplies to meet the needs of this region. The Water Partnership will evaluate the appropriate timing and amount of water supply Austin will need based on demand projections. The Water Partnership will then evaluate various water supply alternatives to meet Austin’s future water demand and present recommendations to the Austin City Council and LCRA Board for approval.

In recognition of the importance of public input, LCRA and Austin have committed to a process designed to consider stakeholder and other customer concerns as part of the water supply planning process. A stakeholder group will be created to provide input on various issues under consideration, and LCRA and Austin will report on the activities of the Water Partnership on their Web sites and directly to the LCRA Board, Austin City Council and its advisory boards and commissions, as well as the regional water planning group (Region K).

Approval of the supplemental water supply agreement also confirms the settlement of a long-standing dispute over water returned to the Colorado River from the City of Austin’s wastewater treatment facilities. The settlement agreement was approved in June 2007 and allows Austin and LCRA to share the water returned to the Colorado River and provides for environmental flow needs in the lower Colorado River and Matagorda Bay. To implement the settlement agreement additional water rights authorizations may be needed from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.