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More pressure heaped on LCRA
December 11, 2012, 9:00 pm by James Walker
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| State Senator Troy Fraser |
State Sens. Troy Fraser and Kirk Watson, whose Highland Lakes constituents have borne the brunt of the debilitating consequences of a record-breaking drought amid the Lower Colorado River Authority’s questionable management of the water in the Highland Lakes, sent a strongly-worded letter to the authority’s board of directors Tuesday, urging them to rescind a controversial emergency drought order.
The board should revisit the emergency drought order it approved Nov. 14 that includes a 775,000-acre feet water cutoff trigger point that virtually guarantees approximately 150,000 acre feet of water will be released from the Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis reservoirs for use by downstream rice farmers even as the lake levels continue to drop and weather forecasters predict a continued prolonged dry period.
The next scheduled LCRA board meetings are Dec. 18 and 19 in Bastrop.
"We ask that the LCRA rescind its imprudent decision made on Nov. 14, 2012. We ask that you timely seek relief from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to protect the basic water needs of firm water customers,” Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) and Watson (D-Austin) wrote. "In light of the ever-worsening drought, the very least that could be considered acceptable would be a repeat of the same Emergency Order sought and approved by TCEQ last year.
For more of this story, see Wednesday's Burnet Bulletin and The Llano County Journal.
Reader Comments
Why don't we just stop releasing ALL water from Buchanan and Travis and let the other lakes go dry. I wonder if this wouldn't create a lot of pressure by the owners of all the lake front property on Inks, LBJ, Austin, and Town Lakes.
December 14, 2012, 1:07pm by Jeff Gambert
State Sens. Fraser and Watson need to be commended for the move they have made to rescind the decision by L C R A to allow water to be sent to the rice farmers with the lake as low as it is. It would appear that someone within L C R A is giving special consideration to the rice farmers with no consideration to the affect this will have on the entire Central Texas area, and lake habitat it itself.
December 19, 2012, 1:54pm by calvin stelly
220 South Main St., Burnet, TX 78611 - Phone: (512)756-6136