After hearing a wide range of recommendations for emergency drought relief, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality opted to instead set its own standards for managing Highland Lakes water during this looming drought.
TCEQ commissioners voted unanimously Feb. 26 to cut off downstream rice farmers for 120 days, effective Jan. 27, because of extensive drought conditions.
"We need to deal with the situation in front of us and not do anything further than that," TCEQ Commissioner Toby Baker said. "I do not believe we should set a trigger level today."
The Feb. 26 ruling does not set a trigger point for allowing water to flow downstream, unlike the past two years of emergency drought relief when an 850,000 acre-feet lakes minimum was needed to allow water to flow downstream. The issue will likely be revisited later this year to determine if lake levels have improved enough to allow irrigation water in time for the latter half of the rice crop season.
The Lower Colorado River Authority recommended cutting off rice farmers if combined storage in lakes Travis and Buchanan failed to reach 1.1 million acre-feet by March 1, while two state administrative law judges called on a 1.4 million acre-feet trigger point. The lakes' combined storage is 761,000 acre-feet as of Feb. 26, making it unlikely levels would have increased enough to grant rice farmers any access to water had a trigger point been set.
"Evidence very convincingly shows the drought is very likely to occur at very extreme levels, and the period of time that will continue is very difficult to estimate," said Bill Newchurch, one of two ALJs assigned to mediate the case. "It could be a very long time."
LCRA attorney Lyn Clancy told the state commission that 1.4 million acre-feet was too high of a trigger point to justify, while an 850,000 acre-feet trigger point proposed by downstream rice farming proponents was too risky, she said. She instead endorsed LCRA's original recommendation of 1.1 million acre-feet.
There is no telling how long the drought may last, said Ross Crowe, an attorney for Austin Water Utility. The climatologist estimated in 2011 the drought could last between 3–15 years, an estimate LCRA's own meteorologist does not dispute, Crowe said. Because of this risk, he called for a conservative approach to protecting the Austin-area water supply.
"That water supply simply cannot be replaced any time soon," Crowe said. "Those are the kinds of facts the judges heard and found so compelling that they made a judgement call that we need a refill of at least 1.4 million acre-feet."
Rather than set a trigger point, TCEQ followed a practice similar to last July by granting emergency drought relief without a set trigger point. In the motion approved by commissioners, trigger levels were deemed to be "insufficient" when determining any imminent threat to public health and safety—the criteria needed to grant emergency relief.
The emergency order expires around May 26, before which LCRA will need to re-apply for emergency drought relief in order to gain any potential extension from TCEQ.