More research, data to be included before final approval in at least 10 months

A long-term strategy for managing Central Texas water has been delayed at least 10 months to allow state officials more time to collect information on looming drought conditions.

Zak Covar, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said streamflow data, or the amount of water flowing into the Highland Lakes during the drought, needs to be included before final approval is made on a pending Lower Colorado River Authority water management plan.

"I understand the importance of the [water management plan] to all the stakeholders in the basin," Covar said in a June 3 letter to LCRA General Manager Becky Motal. "In addition, the Colorado River Basin is currently experiencing severe drought conditions with no immediate relief in sight."

LCRA first submitted its proposed water management plan to TCEQ last year after more than 18 months of deliberations with basin stakeholders. TCEQ then held a public comment period, during which it received 94 written comments and 96 requests for additional hearings, TCEQ spokesman Terry Clawson said.

Now TCEQ intends to hold its own evaluation process, which will include additional information collection and other stakeholder meetings, the first of which took place June 26 when more than 20 speakers provided public comment.

"There is no more important issue facing this region now than the drought, and having a plan that protects the water supply for our firm customers is critical," Motal said in a statement supporting the additional review.

Earl Foster, general manager of the Lakeway Municipal Utility District and one of 16 original stakeholders during LCRA's evaluation process, also serves as chairman of the Highland Lakes Firm Water Customers Cooperative, which represents Lakeway, Cedar Park, Leander, Burnet, Pflugerville, the Travis County Water Control and Improvement District No. 17 and the West Travis County Public Utility Agency. When the stakeholder process first began in 2011, Foster said, Central Texas was just beginning the worst year on record for water inflows—water collected along the river basin.

"That data needs to be accounted for in the plan," he said. "If that's not in the plan, then we all see that as a flaw."

Because of the delayed action, Foster said another emergency drought order will likely be necessary in 2014—marking the third in as many years. While the rice-farming industry supports TCEQ's delay, the consequences of another year without water from lakes Travis and Buchanan could be detrimental, said Ronald Gertson, a rice farmer and chairman of the Colorado Water Issues Committee, which represents the rice farmers.

"Our biggest concern is that the current weather doesn't create knee-jerk policies to be put in place," he said. "Folks are being stirred up by some of our opposition to make this issue to be a more scary issue than it really is."

But up-to-date, hard data was not available previously, said Jo Karr Tedder, president of the Central Texas Water Coalition, which represents lake-area businesses and residents. Karr Tedder and Gertson agree the water management plan sent to TCEQ was not the same as the one stakeholders agreed to in principal during the LCRA evaluation process.

"[The proposed water management plan] does not manage the water appropriately, and there a lot of things put in it that shouldn't have been put in that were voted down at the table but put back in when LCRA wrote it," Karr Tedder said.

And with water inflows this year on pace to match record lows in 2011, Karr Tedder said drinking water will take priority over recreation and agricultural use.

"That changes the dynamics completely," she said.

The historic nature of the recent drought conditions have forced TCEQ's hand, said Gertson, who fears the process may drag out longer than it already has.

"At some point, you've got to draw the line and say this is all the data we can use," he said.