LCRA
approves new Water Management Plan for lakes Buchanan and Travis

LCRA’s
Board of Directors Wednesday approved a new Water Management Plan for lakes
Buchanan and Travis that provides LCRA more flexibility to respond to severe
droughts.

Wednesday’s
10-5 vote was the culmination of more than 18 months of work by LCRA and an
advisory committee made up of volunteers from throughout the basin. The plan
determines how water is allocated from lakes Buchanan and Travis, the region’s
water supply reservoirs. It will now be sent to the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality for final approval.

“The
Board should be proud of the complete and thorough vetting of this plan,” LCRA
Chair Tim Timmerman said. “Board members showed that they can disagree about a
weighty specific issue, but disagree agreeably. The people of the basin should
be gratified in knowing that the Board, our stakeholders and the LCRA staff
succeeded in revising a management plan for lakes Travis and Buchanan that seeks
to balance a wide variety of needs.”

The
version of the plan approved Wednesday contains important changes recommended by
the advisory committee, as well as changes recommended during the public comment
period. Nearly 450 written comments were submitted to LCRA, and 49 people
commented to the Board in person during meetings on Tuesday and
Wednesday.

“Today’s
vote is representative of the heartfelt passion that has been evident in the
18-month long stakeholder process,” said LCRA General Manager Becky Motal.

The
new plan contains many changes from the current one. Among them:

• Using
  two trigger points during the year to determine how much stored water from the
  lakes is available for agriculture, mostly downstream rice farming. One trigger
  point, Jan. 1, would be used for the first rice crop and a second, June 1, would
  be used for the second crop. The current plan contains only a Jan. 1 trigger
  point.
• Eliminating
  "open supply," which is the practice of making unlimited water from the Highland
  Lakes available for downstream agriculture when the lakes are above a defined
  trigger point. In the future, the amount of stored water available from the
  lakes for downstream agricultural operations would have an upper limit at all
  times.
• Asking
  firm water customers, mostly cities and industry, to reduce water use consistent
  with their drought plans only after interruptible water from the Highland Lakes
  for agriculture is restricted. Current practice can result in LCRA requesting
  firm customers implement voluntary conservation before agricultural water is
  restricted. Firm customers pay considerably more for their water than farmers
  and other "interruptible" customers.
• Using
  two different projected future demand levels in the new plan to set triggers
  based on the amount of water used by cities and industry. The current plan is
  based on a single demand projection looking 10 years in the future. This new
  approach responds to actual growth in water use and could make more water
  available for agricultural needs until it is needed by cities and industry.
• Incorporating
  new scientific studies that better reflect the needs of the river and bay
  environment.

Also
Wednesday, the LCRA Board adopted a resolution with a goal of implementing
projects to find 100,000 acre-feet of new water supply in the next five years.
Both of Wednesday’s decisions come in the midst of one of the worst droughts in
the region’s history. Because of the record hot and dry conditions in 2011, the
amount of water flowing into the Highland Lakes last year was the lowest since
the lakes were built. This has resulted in some of the lowest lake levels in
history and could mean that most downstream farmers receive no water from the
Highland Lakes this year.

“Everyone
agrees that we need to develop new water supplies and this is the start,”
Timmerman said. “This is the solution to the competing interests of the upper
and lower basin.”

LCRA
has used a state-approved Water Management Plan to manage lakes Buchanan and
Travis since 1989. The plan was updated in 1992, 1999 and 2010. The 16-member
advisory committee that assisted LCRA by making recommendations on proposed
updates to the plan was made up of members representing the major, and sometimes
competing, interests that rely on the lakes' water: cities and industry,
environment, lake area businesses and residents, and agriculture.