Board votes to wait on decision to allow stakeholder's more time for input
A long-term plan for keeping the Austin area's primary water supply intact was introduced Aug. 15, but its approval remains uncertain.
The Lower Colorado River Authority unveiled a revised water management plan that places stricter standards for releasing Highland Lakes water to downstream rice farmers.
LCRA board members agreed unanimously Aug. 20 to delay final approval of the revised management plan to allow stakeholders on both sides of the Colorado River more time to review the proposal.
"The time the public has had [for] a chance to look at this thing has been short," LCRA board Chairman Tim Timmerman said. "I think this will be a positive thing, and maybe there [are] some tweaks [to the water management plan] that could be done."
The new proposed plan is based on staff recommendations and criteria set forth by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency responsible for granting final approval. The plan creates higher trigger points before LCRA can divert water from lakes Travis and Buchanan to interruptible customers, mostly downstream agricultural users.
Had the proposed plan been in place the past 74 years, historic data suggests interruptible users would have received water about 80 percent of the time, said John Hoffman, LCRA vice president of water. Also, he said the likelihood of the Highland Lakes dropping to historic lows—below 600,000 acre-feet in combined storage—decreases from 8 percent to 4 percent under the new proposed plan.
LCRA firm water users, mostly municipalities, on Aug. 19 and 20 urged board approval of the more stringent plan rather than rely on annual emergency orders, which, for the past three years, have been needed to keep lake levels from reaching historic lows.
The Highland Lakes Firm Water Customers Cooperative, which represents Burnet, Cedar Park, Leander, the Lakeway Municipal Utility District, Pflugerville, Travis County Water Control and Improvement District No. 17 and the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, had multiple members also address the board. Earl Foster, Lakeway MUD general manager and HLFWCC chairman, told the board the cooperative's members use 22 percent of all the water contracted by LCRA.
While downstream agriculture interests did not refute any details within the plan, they did successfully ask for more time to review details of the proposal.
"I think it's a very dangerous precedent you're setting to rubber-stamp this plan without giving stakeholders a chance to at least review it," said Laurance Armour, general manager of Pierce Ranch, a 4,000-acre rice-farming operation. "I fear that, by doing this, LCRA is abdicating responsibility for the basin. "
Board members directed LCRA staff to hold meetings with stakeholders from throughout the Colorado River basin to further dissect the plan proposal. Staff will return with any changes to the plan—or possibly an unchanged water plan—at the Sept. 17 LCRA board meeting.
If approved at that time, LCRA General Manager Phil Wilson said his staff will submit the plan to TCEQ within three to four weeks.
