Travis County Commissioners Court supports 2013 emergency drought order

An emergency drought order results in water being withheld for interruptible customers downstream.

LCRA's water management plan uses two trigger points, on Jan. 1 and June 1, to determine how much water from the lakes can be used for agriculture.

Currently, the lake level for Lake Travis is 634 feet mean sea level—42 percent full—and the lake level for Lake Buchanan is 993 feet mean sea level—46 percent full.

When the LCRA board approved an emergency drought plan in September 2011, the lake level of Lake Travis was at 631 feet msl, Huber noted.

Huber said LCRA is expected to consider the issue during its Nov. 14 meeting.

"This is a short-term hedge against serious water issues," she said. "From a water standpoint, we all have to work to find solutions."

She said that if water was released to interruptible customers in January and if the area did not receive additional rain, "We ourselves could have serious [water] curtailments."