The Lower Colorado River Authority likely will move to Stage 2 of its drought response in early March, which would require all LCRA firm water customers to increase water saving measures 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.
Last Thursday, combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis, the two water storage reservoirs in the Highland Lakes, stood at 1.016 million acre-feet, or about 51% of capacity.
“It looks like we’ll be headed 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-tolerant plants that can survive and thrive on watering no more than once a week.”
Under LCRA’s Drought Contingency Plan for Firm Water Customers, LCRA would move from Stage 1 to Stage 2 if on March 1 combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis is below 1.1 million acre-feet and the prior three months of inflows are 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 inflows for that period, and it is likely that December to February inflows also will be below the 25th percentile for that period.
The maximum once-perweek watering restriction would affect cities, businesses, industries and lakeside property owners that draw water directly from the Highland Lakes. In Stage 2, LCRA firm water customers such as cities and industries also must implement additional water- saving measures with a target demand reduction goal of 20%. Each firm water customer will decide what additional conservation measures to enact and how to enforce them.
LCRA firm water customers include Austin, Burnet, Cedar Park, Cottonwood Shores, Dripping Springs, Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Lago Vista, Leander, Marble Falls, Pflugerville, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, and multiple municipal utility districts, water control and improvement districts, and water supply corporations. Several LCRA water customers, including the City of Austin, already have maximum once-a-week watering restrictions in place.
Stage 2 would remain in effect until the combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis increases to at least 1.1 million acre-feet, or about 55% of capacity.
Because of the ongoing drought, there likely will be no water from the Highland Lakes available 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 agricultural season in 2022. LCRA will determine whether water will be available for the first growing season in 2025 based on March 1 combined storage in lakes Buchanan and Travis.
