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Central Texas Water Coalition is in favor of fair and equitable water pricing for all customers.
We are opposed to raising the raw water rates on firm customers (businesses, municipalities, water supply companies, residents) while subsidizing irrigators and obfuscating true charges for raw water.
In the past, there was abundant water in the Colorado River and fewer people and businesses in the Central Texas region. That was then, this is now.
The old policies need to be reviewed and updated to reflect the reality of the population explosion and the new paradigm of water availability. It appeared that LCRA became aware of the wolf at the door when they started selling water from the once 50,000 acre-feet BoardReserve.
Now, LCRA will soon spend millions of dollars searching for new water supplies while at the same time giving raw water to some interruptible customers for free.
The Arbuckle Reservoir has been touted to save up to 90,000 acre-feet for the upper basin. That number is a guesstimate since Arbuckle is still not usable.
I hope the theory that the 40,000 acre-feet reservoir can be filled multiple times and used to capture flood overflow is accurate.
However, that will be shown with the data once the reservoir is working. Modeling is only as good as the assumptions that are used in the calculation.
The La Nina we are experiencing, the drought we are in, and the expanded need for drinking water for Central Texans and businesses should be paramount.
We always say to pray for rain, but plan for drought.
We can’t afford to wait until the water is gone.
Here are excerpts and explanations from our water rate comments presented at the Water Operations meeting on January 18 by our attorney, Cindy Smiley:
First, CTWC works hard to provide accurate information, and it has no interest in spreading misinformation.
If we have misstated or misunderstood something, we want to correct it.
An open dialogue with LCRA staff and Board members would be welcome, but this depends on LCRA’s willingness to meet.
Second, CTWC did not oppose LCRA’s application for groundwater wells in the Bastrop area; we’re happy that LCRA is evaluating new water supply options. However, we did stay neutral because of the lack of data on surface water/groundwater interaction.
These questions are still unanswered: 1) Why are Interruptible water rates subsidized by LCRA; 2) Why can’t we see an apples-to-apples comparison of raw water rates for Firm and Interruptible Customers; 3) Why are Interruptible Customers receiving this preferential treatment to the detriment of LCRA’s other customers and to the detriment of LCRA’s own revenues; 4) Why aren’t you using the $13 Million Agriculture Reserve Fund to fund conservation projects; and 5) Why aren’t you using water pricing to encourage conservation?
The LCRA Board and staff remarks about the 150 written comments and their content, sounded like hordes of crazed, uninformed masses had bombarded the LCRA with inac curate and misguided comments.
However, we found thoughtful comments from knowledgeable, concerned citizens who took the time to respond to the opportunity to provide public comments in accordance with a Texas agency’s rule-making process.
There was no basis for the criticisms and mischaracterizations of the public comments at the Committee Meeting.
Those meetings are taped, so the meetings can be reviewed by going to the LCRA website.
Further, it didn’t appear that LCRA respected the public’s concerns regarding the risks to upper basin water supplies, even though, shortly before the discussion on
Interruptible Rates, the LCRA’s report on low inflows stated December inflows totaled
12,972 acre-feet, which about 36% of the December historical median.
This was another reminder that the inflows into the Highland Lakes are at frightening low levels.
If LCRA intends to honor the Sunset Advisory Commission’s recommendations for earning public trust and practicing greater transparency, we’re not off to a very good start.
