Is the Hill Country drought over?
This image of Texas from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows Burnet and Llano counties are nearly drought free following less than two weeks of intense rain and flooding.
Burnet and Llano counties are free and clear of drought on the surface, but more data is needed to determine the impact of recent flooding on local aquifers and the groundwater drought.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, about 82 percent of Burnet County and 84 percent of Llano County are completely free of drought conditions, with roughly 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively, remaining in “abnormally dry” conditions in the southern portions of both counties.
The Lower Colorado River Authority has not formally announced a change to Stage 2 drought restrictions, but according to its drought management plan, the LCRA drops from Stage 2 to Stage 1 when the combined storage of lakes Buchanan and Travis reaches over 55 percent capacity. As of Wednesday, July 16, the combined storage of the two reservoirs is 93 percent.
While both counties are soaked through from rain that hasn’t let up since July 4 and lakes Buchanan and Travis are nearly full, officials from the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District are still waiting to see the flood’s impact on local aquifers before changing the current groundwater drought stage, which still sits at Stage 4-Critical, the most severe rating on its scale. The district manages groundwater in Burnet County.
“Just because it rains in Burnet or Marble Falls doesn’t mean it will reach our aquifers,” Central Texas GCD President Ryan Rowney told DailyTrib.com. “We’re still waiting to see how the aquifers react (to the recent rain and flooding).”
Rowney said the district’s Board of Directors and General Manager Mitchell Sodek will address a possible change to the drought stage at their next meeting pending readings from monitoring wells across Burnet County.
The board will next meet at 9 a.m. on July 28 at its offices in Burnet, 225 S. Pierce Street.
2 thoughts on “Is the Hill Country drought over?”
Comments are closed.
I would much rather hear the status of any drought from respected and water worthy individuals from the Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District on the square in Burnet than from the LCRA lifetime bureaucrats appointed by incompetent grifters in Sodom on the Colorado (Austin). Some of these hacks are being given $500,000+ salaries with huge annual bonuses while we lowly peasants stare year after year at half full Lake Travis and 15′ low Buchanan. Non profit public utility????? Right.
The LCRA is a slick and bloated government agency complete with a professional marketing department tooting their horn 365 days a year. Water stewardship???? Whoever decided to put the word “stewardship” on their website surely got one of those huge bonuses. Why don’t these self-annointed stewards get out of their plush offices, grab a chainsaw, shovel, pickaxe and clean up the millions of potential boating hazards? Stumps, trees, silt and sand bars are major potential hazards year after year. These potential killers go unchecked year after drought year after drought year. They make it abundantly clear that most of the shoreline and land beneath the surface is private land yet they tell you what you can and cannot do with debris and the vast majority of debris they want no part of.
One thing the LCRA learned when it took over a 40% completed Buchanan Dam in 1935 was how to spend federal money. Remember LBJ?
I’d much rather sell water to Georgetown folks than any of the following groups who all have or have had their snouts deep in the LCRA slop trough:
1. Rice farmers. These gobblers pay around $42 an acre foot. This drain on Burnet County helps pay for those obscene & lofty LCRA nonprofit staff salaries. I have never seen a kernel of Texas raised rice.
2. Shrimp farmers (if you are an LCRA employee you might come home with a case of shrimp in your trunk or pickup)
3. New, bloated subdivisions being built all up and down the river. Is this their vision of community service?
4. Duck hunters? Seriously. You need good, fresh water to attract those tasty ducks.
5. Oilfield brine companies (using fresh water from the Colorado to make salt water?????) Isn’t the ocean salt water?
6. Chemical & power plants?
7. San Saba pecans.
8. Lometa peanuts
9. State parks? Boat ramps. Camping? Non Profit?
These are just a few of the entities you and I are keeping afloat. Why don’t the greedy rice farmers, shrimpers, oyster farmers, duck slayers, pecan and peanut growers show some gratitude and send us all a little Christmas gift this year in the form of appreciation. A bag of rice? A small box of shrimp? A duck wing? Some pecan and peanut laden trail mix?
You can’t blame the LCRA. They know the supply is continually receding. They have to preach to us C-O-N-S-E-R-V-A-T-I-O-N. Conservation does not pertain to them though.
85 years of fleecing Texans and still going strong. I’m listening to the CTGCD. Led by local folks with local, water knowledge and not themselves products of blood sucking Washington DC & Sodom on the Colorado actions.
They’re more concerned with selling the water to the Georgetown area than lowering our rates. They are more concerned with $$$$ than residents. Shame on them