LCRA limits outdoor watering to once a week due to drought
This 2023 photo was taken at the Llano County Park boat ramp when Lake Buchanan was at 57 percent capacity. As of Feb. 22, 2024, the lake was at 46 percent capacity. Lake Travis, the other reservoir lake on the Highland Lakes chain, was at 39 percent capacity, making for a combined storage of 42 percent. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Municipalities that buy water from the Lower Colorado River Authority must now limit outdoor watering to once a week until the ongoing drought eases and water levels in lakes Buchanan and Travis reach 1.1 million acre-feet, or about 55 percent capacity.
As of Thursday, Feb. 22, the combined storage was at 847,000 acre-feet, or 42 percent capacity.
“Our reservoirs are stressed, and we need to do everything we can to preserve our supplies through this drought,” said LCRA Executive Vice President of Water John Hofmann.
The LCRA Board of Directors approved the new watering restriction at the Feb. 21 meeting. Firm water customers will have to follow suit by passing ordinances that reflect those restrictions or face fines of up to $10,000 a day from the LCRA.
“This action is a reflection of the serious drought we’re in,” Hofmann said. “We don’t know when this drought will end, and we need to cut discretionary water use to help protect and extend our water supplies.”
Moving from twice-a-week watering to once a week is expected to reduce annual water usage by 7-12 percent.
The restriction’s trigger is when the combined storage in the two reservoir lakes goes below 900,000 acre-feet, or 45 percent of capacity.
Highland Lakes cities that must adhere to the new rule include Burnet, Cottonwood Shores, Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Marble Falls, and Sunrise Beach Village. The restriction also applies to lakeside property owners with LCRA contracts to draw water directly from the lakes.
Once-a-week watering will remain in effect until lakes Buchanan and Travis reach 1.1 million acre-feet, or about 55 percent capacity.
“We can’t make it rain, we can’t increase the amount of water flowing into the lakes, and we can’t stop evaporation, which takes more water from the Highland Lakes every year than any single customer,” Hofmann said. “What we can do is limit how much water we use, and that is what we’re doing here.”
2 thoughts on “LCRA limits outdoor watering to once a week due to drought”
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Everyone needs to tell King Hofmann that when he stops selling water downstream to everyone from brine companies, duck hunters, shrimp farms, rice farms and others then we’ll stop watering our grass.
Since he and his staff are such wonderful stewards of our lakes why doesn’t he get his directors, give them a pair of gloves and do some work for a change. I see thousands of water hazards (stumps, trees, etc.) that are begging for removal.
Stewards of the lakes? The LCRA is lazy, arrogant and unmotivated. You guys are just like Washington DC or Austin……a lumbering, blubbering, bumbling bureaucracy.
Your marketing department seems to be the only department having to work.
DOES WATER RESTRICTIONS APPLY TO MEADOWLAKES? WE DO HAVE OUR OWN WATER PLANT BUT IT IS STILL THE COLORADO RIVER.