Technical review of Water Management Plan progressing

The Lower Colorado River Authority continues to work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as it conducts the technical review of the Water Management Plan amendment.

LCRA staff believes that there has been significant progress made in the technical review process. The process can take as long as a year from the time TCEQ declares the proposed plan is administratively complete, which occurred on April 19. This gives TCEQ an opportunity to review the plan and request additional information or clarifications.

Yesterday, LCRA submitted supplemental information to the TCEQ to address questions the state agency has had during the review. The supplemental information is available at this link and changes are shown. Most of the changes are to clarify language on issues that TCEQ raised. During the review process, LCRA found that some of the hydrology data used when the draft plan was created was not up to date. This is data that reflects the natural flow of the river and the effects of the dams, water use by customers and others, and return flows.

LCRA updated the hydrology and used the same methodology that was reviewed by the stakeholder committee and LCRA Board, which resulted in a slight increase in the amount of stored water needed to meet irrigation demands during the highest year in the simulated period. As a result, the annual cap on interruptible water available to downstream farmers under the proposed plan increased by about 1.8 percent, from 273,500 acre-feet a year to 278,500 acre-feet a year.

Below is a summary of the updates to the hydrology:

• LCRA used hydrological data from 1940-2009 when drafting the proposed plan;

• The updated data is for 1999 to 2009 and includes changes to the physical location of some water demands on lakes Travis and Buchanan, as well as a senior water right upstream of Lake Buchanan;

• Data from a recent sediment survey was also incorporated;

• These issues combined to change the hydrology slightly and resulted in the 1.8 percent increase in the interruptible water cap; and

• The cap for the 2020 demand phase has also been increased by a similar amount, and the curtailment curves in the plan were adjusted slightly to reflect the updated modeling results.

Such adjustments are common during the technical review process. The technical review process is serving its purpose to ensure that the most up-to-date data is used.

LCRA believes the technical review process is proceeding well and will continue to notify stakeholders and the public of significant steps in the Water Management Plan process.

Earlier this month, LCRA submitted a letter to TCEQ responding to comments made by the Colorado Water Issues Committee of the Texas Rice Producers Legislative Group. In the response, LCRA states that it stands by the amended WMP it submitted and the process used to develop the plan. LCRA also said that it is disappointed with the Colorado Water Issues Committee’s characterization of the amended WMP. LCRA’s response can be viewed here.