Lower Colorado River Authority: Drought Update

LCRA asks customers to conserve during severe drought

The Lower Colorado River Authority is calling on all customers to conserve water as the drought across the Colorado River basin intensifies.

"We are very concerned because this drought looks as if it may be one of the most severe we've seen in decades," LCRA General Manager Tom Mason said. "The last seven months have been among the driest in our basin's history. The good news is we're prepared. We have a state-approved Water Management Plan that has been recently updated and we are following that."

The Water Management Plan governs how LCRA operates lakes Travis and Buchanan, the region's water supply reservoirs. The plan contains triggers that determine who must reduce water use, and when, in times of drought. The triggers are generally based on the amount of water stored in lakes Travis and Buchanan.

In Austin, only 5.3 inches of rain fell from October through the end of April. This was the third driest period on record for those months since 1856. Rainfall from February through the end of April has been less than an inch, by far the driest February through April period on record for Austin. It was also the warmest April on record for Austin.

This extended period of very dry weather has seriously impacted the amount of water flowing into the Highland Lakes from the river, creeks and other tributaries. This water, known as inflows, is what fills lakes Travis and Buchanan. These lakes help supply water to more than 1 million Central Texans, as well as water to industry, businesses, agriculture and the environment.

Inflows from October through April are similar to inflows during the worst drought on record, which occurred from 1947 to 1957. Inflows for this seven-month period are the fourth lowest on record since 1942. Inflows in April were the second lowest on record for that month.

While lakes Travis and Buchanan are below average for this time of year, they are still higher than they were at the start of summer in 2009, which is the year of the most recent extreme drought.

Long-range weather forecasts indicate rainfall will likely remain below normal through spring and early summer. With little rain in the forecast, drought conditions will likely grow worse in the coming weeks. Even if wetter conditions return as a result of tropical storm activity, widespread rains of more than 5-6 inches would be needed across the Hill Country just to saturate the ground enough to create significant runoff. This would need to be followed within a relatively short period of time by more widespread rains for runoff to begin flowing into the Highland Lakes.

LCRA follows a state-approved Water Management Plan to manage its water supplies and is operating under an updated plan since the drought of 2009. Under the new 2010 plan, cutbacks of water supplies for agricultural customers begin earlier during a drought than under the old plan. In addition, LCRA also asks for voluntary cutbacks from its municipal and industrial customers earlier during a drought than it did in 2009.

LCRA now requests voluntary conservation when the combined storage of lakes Travis and Buchanan falls to 1.4 million acre-feet. This occurred on May 2, and LCRA has requested that its customers implement voluntary water use restrictions with a goal of reducing use by 5 percent. If this drought continues, downstream farmers will likely face significant cutbacks next year.

"The water of the Colorado River is a precious resource shared by the entire basin," Mason said."Droughts are difficult times for everyone, but by working together, we can all get what we need to make it through. Everyone might not get what they want, but everyone should get what they need."

For more information on the drought visit www.lcra.org/droughtupdate.