LCRA renews calls for conservation as drought continues

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  Although levels have increased, several areas along the Colorado River, including Lake Travis, remain well below full.

  Although levels have increased, several areas along the Colorado River, including Lake Travis, remain well below full.

With the region's wa - ter supply lakes below full, the Lower Colorado River Authority on Tues - day reminded residents of the importance of con - serving water as we head into what is expected to be another hot, dry summer.

"Thanks to rains in May, our water supplies are in better shape than they were a year ago, but lakes Buchanan and Tra - vis are still not full," said John Hofmann, LCRA executive vice president of Water. "The lakes re - main stressed from years of serious drought, and we all should do our part to conserve and stop water waste."

On Tuesday, com - bined storage in lakes Bu - chanan and Travis, the two water supply reservoirs in the Highland Lakes, stood at 1.1 million acre-feet, or about 55% of capacity. A year ago, combined stor - age stood at 1.005 million acre-feet, or about 50.4% of capacity.

"The greatest user of water in the summer months is outdoor water - ing," Hofmann said. "Up to 70% of the municipal water used during the summer is used outdoors, so cutting back on how much water goes outdoors can make a significant dif - ference in our overall water supplies. We can't control evaporation, but we can – and absolutely should – control how much water we use." Though LCRA and some local water providers allow watering up to twice a week under current con - ditions, LCRA encourages people to water no more than once a week.

"As my mother used to say, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should," Hofmann said. "So in this case, even though watering may be allowed twice a week, we strongly recommend peo - ple stick to watering once a week. Watering less fre - quently is a more efficient use of water and encour - ages a deeper root system, which helps protect plants as topsoil dries out during hotter weather." LCRA recommends following these water-sav -

ing tips:

Follow local watering rules, and water yards only on designated days before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. to reduce evaporation.

Use water-effi - cient landscaping and drought-tolerant plants.

Cover swimming pools when not in use.

Add mulch to land - scapes and compost to turf to help prevent water loss.

Visit www.WaterSmart. org for more water-saving tips, tools and resources.

Drought Stage

LCRA is in Stage 1 of its drought response. Under Stage 1 conditions, LCRA allows landscape watering up to twice a week for do - mestic use customers that have a contract with LCRA to draw water directly from the Highland Lakes. LCRA requests its customers re - duce water use by 10% and that its firm water custom - ers, which primarily are cities, utilities and indus - tries, implement mandato - ry water use restrictions. Firm customers set their own watering schedules, but may not allow watering more than twice a week.

LCRA projections show that if July and Au - gust are extremely hot and dry, combined storage in lakes Buchanan and Travis could fall below 900,000 acre-feet, or 45% of capac - ity, which would trigger Stage 2 drought response and maximum once-aweek watering, by the fall.

No water for most ag - ricultural customers this year Because of the ongoing drought, no water from the Highland Lakes has been available to most LCRA agricultural customers in Wharton, Colorado and Matagorda counties since the second agricultural growing season in 2022.

Customers in the Gulf Coast, Lakeside and Pierce Ranch operations purchase "interruptible water," which is curtailed or cut back during droughts un - der LCRA's state-approved Water Management Plan.

LCRA determines the availability of stored water from the Highland Lakes for most interruptible cus - tomers twice a year – on March 1 and July 1. If no water is available on the March evaluation date, no water from the Highland Lakes will be available after the July 1 evaluation either. On March 1, 2024, LCRA determined that no water from the lakes would be available to most inter - ruptible customers for the year.

The next time water from lakes Buchanan and Travis could be available to customers in those oper - ations is after the March 1, 2025, evaluation date. Customers in the Gar - wood Agricultural Divi - sion are entitled to inter - ruptible water from the Highland Lakes this year under terms of the 1998 purchase agreement for the Garwood water rights