LCRA submits new Water Management Plan to the state

The Lower Colorado River Authority has submitted its new proposed Water Management Plan for lakes Buchanan and Travis to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for review and approval. The new plan, adopted by LCRA’s Board of Directors on Feb. 22, gives LCRA more flexibility to respond to severe droughts.

The new plan includes recommendations made by an advisory committee composed of stakeholders throughout the basin, including cities, industry, agriculture, environmental concerns and lake area residents and businesses. The committee worked for roughly 18 months providing LCRA input on critical water management issues. The plan also incorporates suggestions from public comments. There were more than 450 written public comments submitted on the plan and about 42 more made at LCRA meetings on Feb. 21 and 22.

"The water of the Highland Lakes is vital to people throughout the basin and there has been tremendous interest in this plan," said LCRA General Manager Becky Motal. "The plan LCRA has submitted to the state tries to balance the interests throughout the basin and protect customers during severe droughts, like the one we are still experiencing."

The Water Management Plan determines how water is allocated from lakes Buchanan and Travis, the region's water supply reservoirs. They provide water for more than a million people in Central Texas, as well as industries throughout the Colorado River basin, the environment and agricultural interests in Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado counties.

Now that LCRA has submitted the plan, TCEQ has up to a year from the time it determines LCRA’s application is administratively complete to perform its technical review. LCRA has posted the proposed plan, the written public comments and the exhibits filed with the TCEQ on LCRA.org.

The plan submitted to TCEQ 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 or main rice crop and a second, June 1, would be used for the second or ratoon crop season. The current plan contains only a Jan. 1 trigger point.
• Eliminating "open supply," which is the practice of making unlimited water from lakes Buchanan and Travis 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 lakes for agriculture is restricted. Current practice can result in LCRA requesting firm customers implement voluntary conservation before agricultural water is restricted.
• 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 agriculture until it is needed by cities and industry.
• Incorporating new scientific studies that better reflect the conditions of the river and bay environment.

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.

Currently, LCRA is operating the lakes under emergency drought relief measures approved by the TCEQ in December.