Ongoing drought shows no signs of easing as we head into spring
AUSTIN - The Lower Col -
orado River Authority will likely move to Stage 2 of its drought re - sponse in early March, requiring all LCRA firm water customers to increase water-saving mea - sures and limit outdoor watering to no more than once a week.
LCRA was last in Stage 2 of its drought response from August 2023 through June 2024.
On Thursday, the combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis, the two water storage res - ervoirs in the Highland Lakes, stood at 1.016 million acre-feet, or about 51 percent of capacity.
"It looks like we'll be head - ed into Stage 2 in early March, and we wanted to give people a heads up that outdoor watering may soon be limited to once a week," said John Hofmann, LCRA executive vice president of Water. "We know people are getting ready for spring, and we can't stress strongly enough how important it is to use drought-tol - erant plants that can survive and thrive on watering no more than once a week." Under LCRA's Drought Con - tingency Plan for Firm Water Customers, LCRA would move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 if, on March 1, the combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis is below 1.1 million acre-feet and the prior three months of inflows is less than the 25th percentile of historic inflows for that threemonth period. Inflow totals for December and January were below the 25th percentile of historical in - flows for that period, and, likely, December to February inflows will also be below the 25th per - centile for that period.
The maximum once-perweek watering restriction would affect cities, businesses, indus - tries and lakeside property own - ers that draw water directly from the Highland Lakes. In Stage 2, LCRA firm water customers such as cities and in - dustries also must implement ad - ditional water-saving measures with a target demand reduction goal of 20 percent. Each firm water customer will decide what additional con - servation measures to enact and how to enforce them.
LCRA firm water customers include Austin, Burnet, Cedar Park, Cottonwood Shores, Drip -
ping Springs, Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Lago Vista, Leander, Marble Falls, Pfluger -
ville, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, and mul - tiple municipal utility districts, water control and improvement districts, and water supply cor - porations. Several LCRA water customers, including the City of Austin, already have maximum once-a-week watering restric -
tions in place.
Stage 2 would remain in ef - fect until the combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis increases to at least 1.1 million acre-feet or about 55 percent of capacity.
Because of the ongoing drought, no water from the High - land Lakes will likely be avail - able this year for interruptible agricultural customers in the Gulf Coast, Lakeside and Pierce Ranch operations in the lower basin. Stored water from the lakes has not been available to those customers since the first agricul -
tural season in 2022. LCRA will determine wheth - er water will be available for the first growing season in 2025 based on March 1 combined storage in lakes Buchanan and Travis.
