No Highland Lakes water to coastal farmers for second straight year
The Llano County Park boat ramp has been unusable since the summer of 2023 due to dismal lake levels and extraordinary drought conditions in the Highland Lakes. The Lower Colorado River Authority shut off the 'faucet' to coastal farmers in 2024 to help preserve lakes Buchanan and Travis, both reservoirs. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
The Lower Colorado River Authority will not sell Highland Lakes water to most of its agricultural customers in Colorado, Wharton, and Matagorda counties in 2024 due to extreme drought conditions in Central Texas. This is the second year in a row that farmers were denied water because of drought.
“This (decision to restrict water to agricultural operations) is a reflection of the serious drought we’re in,” said LCRA Executive Vice President of Water John Hofmann in a media release. “Texas has gotten some significant rain over the last few months, but it hasn’t been in the right areas to benefit Lake Buchanan or Lake Travis. The (LCRA) Water Management Plan requires us to take this step to help ensure we can continue to meet the water needs of cities and industries throughout the region.”
The LCRA provides water to certain customers, such as coastal farmers, on an interruptible basis dependent on storage levels in its two reservoirs, Buchanan and Travis. The water supply is evaluated by the authority on March 1 and July 1 each year to determine how much water will be made available to interruptible customers.
This year’s March 1 evaluation determined the Highland Lakes region is experiencing an “extraordinary drought,” the most severe rating on LCRA’s scale. Under those conditions, no water can be sent to customers with interruptible contracts with one exception. The Garwood Agricultural Division can receive up to 16,800 acre-feet of water per a separate agreement with the river authority.
Most interruptible water use has been shut down since the spring of 2023 because of the drought, which has persisted across Central Texas since 2022. Due to guidelines in the LCRA’s Water Management Plan, water will not be made available to interruptible customers until at least the spring of 2025.
The combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis was 42 percent, or 845,016 acre-feet, at the time of this story’s publication. Last spring, it was 52 percent, or 1.03 million acre-feet.
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Like growing rice in Texas was ever a good idea… Rice. Texas. Duh.