Central Texas remains in a serious drought even after recent rains
Reducing discretionary water use, eliminating waste vital as summer heat continues
July 2, 2025
AUSTIN, Texas – Though recent rains raised levels in lakes Buchanan and Travis by several feet, Central Texas remains in a persistent, serious drought and water conservation remains vitally important to preserve the region’s water supply.
The Lower Colorado River Authority is urging people and businesses to reduce discretionary water use such as outdoor watering and eliminate waste such as watering sidewalks or letting indoor faucets run when they’re not in use.
Thanks to recent rains, the combined storage of the two water supply reservoirs in the Highland Lakes – lakes Buchanan and Travis – increased by 126,854 acre-feet, moving storage from 46% to 53% full from late May through mid-June. During that time, Lake Buchanan rose almost 6 feet, to 62% full, and Lake Travis rose more than 3 feet, to 45% full.
“The rains we saw in in late May and June throughout the basin were nice but were not enough to take us out of the drought,” said John Hofmann, LCRA executive vice president of Water. “Storage in the water supply lakes came back up to about where it was in January but has since started to decline again thanks to evaporation and use.”
The level in Lake Buchanan is now about 1,002.5 feet above mean sea level, or about 60% full, and Lake Travis is at about 637.5 feet msl, or about 44% full. Combined storage is now a little over a million acre-feet, or about 51% of capacity. (An acre-foot is the amount of water it would take to cover one acre of land with one foot of water.)
The last time lakes Buchanan and Travis were full was July 2019. The reservoirs are designed to fluctuate – going up while capturing water during rainy times and going down as water is used or evaporates when the weather turns drier.
“The lakes are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Hofmann said. “They are still stressed from years of drought. As we head into July and August, when water use goes up significantly, we are encouraging people to be thoughtful about when and how they use water, and to reduce any nonessential uses.”
During hotter weather, both use and evaporation increase. Evaporation typically takes more water from the lakes than LCRA’s largest customer, the City of Austin.
“We can’t control evaporation,” Hofmann said. “We can’t control the heat or the sun or whether it rains. We can control just a few things – and most of that is the amount of water we use, and that is largely driven by how much water we put on our yards.”
LCRA continues in Stage 2 of its drought response
LCRA remains in Stage 2 of its drought response, which limits outdoor watering to no more than one day a week. Under Stage 2, LCRA firm water customers – including cities, industries and retail water suppliers – also are required to increase water saving measures, with a goal of reducing water use by 20%.
LCRA moved into Stage 2 of its Drought Contingency Plan for Firm Water Customers on March 1.
Ways to conserve water
LCRA offers water-saving tips, tools and resources at www.WaterSmart.org. Water-saving tips include:
- Cutting back on outdoor watering and watering only in the coolest part of the day to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation. As much as 70% of the water leaving water treatment plants during hot summer weather goes toward outdoor landscaping.
- Incorporating water-efficient landscaping and drought-tolerant plants that can survive on no more than once-a-week watering.
- Adding mulch to landscape beds to reduce evaporation.
- Covering swimming pools to reduce evaporation.
- Reducing indoor water use by taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet while lathering hands and brushing teeth, and washing only full loads in the washing machine or dishwasher.
No water for most agricultural customers this year
Because of the ongoing drought, no water from the Highland Lakes has been available to most LCRA agricultural customers in Wharton, Colorado and Matagorda counties since the second agricultural growing season in 2022.
Customers in the Gulf Coast, Lakeside and Pierce Ranch operations purchase “interruptible water,” which is curtailed or cut back during droughts under LCRA’s state-approved Water Management Plan.
LCRA determines the availability of stored water from the Highland Lakes for most interruptible customers twice a year – on March 1 and July 1. However, if LCRA determines that no interruptible water is available on the March evaluation date, no water from the Highland Lakes will be available for interruptible customers after the July 1 evaluation either. On March 1, 2025, LCRA determined that no water from the lakes would be available to most interruptible customers this year.
The next time water from lakes Buchanan and Travis could be available to customers in those operations is after the March 1, 2026, evaluation date.
Customers in the Garwood Agricultural Division are entitled to interruptible water from the Highland Lakes this year under terms of the1998 purchase agreement for the Garwood water rights.
About LCRA
The Lower Colorado River Authority serves customers and communities throughout Texas by managing the lower Colorado River; generating and transmitting electric power; providing a clean, reliable water supply; and offering outdoor adventures at more than 40 parks along the Colorado River from the Texas Hill Country to the Gulf Coast. LCRA and its employees are committed to fulfilling our mission to enhance the quality of life of the Texans we serve through water stewardship, energy and community service. LCRA was created by the Texas Legislature in 1934 and receives no state appropriations.
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