Water coalition takes LCRA to task

The president of the Central Texas Water Coalition called the Lower Colorado River Authority an “unregulated monopoly” during a June 22 regular Burnet County Commissioners Court meeting as she questioned the fairness of the agency’s water pricing and how it manages water usage.

Jo Karr Tedder was giving the commissioners an update about CTWC’s activities on the 10th anniversary of the group, of which Burnet County has been a part since it was founded in 2011.

She especially was critical of how LCRA treats its interruptible water customers (agricultural users located primarily in the lower Colorado basin) versus how it treats its firm water customers, who are paying a premium for expected water availability.

“I think the bottom line (with LCRA) is what has to change,” Tedder said. “LCRA is an unregulated monopoly and we have not been able to get firm customers to stand up in a forum like this and say ‘This is crazy.’

“That’s because the only place you can get water from in the Highland Lakes is LCRA. You are not going to stand up before LCRA one month and say, ‘This is crazy. Why aren’t you charging this?’ and then next month go to them and say, ‘We need more water. How much water will you sell us?’”

Tedder said her non-profit watchdog group continues to have the same concerns about LCRA — “unfair and inequitable water pricing, the need for firm yield adjustments to a safe yield, the low inflow trend, better risk management and accountability and overdrafting is a huge issue.”

When it comes to firm yield, that amount is considered “the amount of water available for LCRA to sell,” but it does not include all water sold or all water used, Tedder said.

“The firm yield is how much water you have to sell, but the only water that is counted is what you are selling to your firm customers,” Tedder said. “The rice farmers (interruptible water customers) are not counted as part of the firm yield, even though by contract, they are guaranteed up to whatever amount. Water for environmental release is not considered in your firm yield either.

“The way it is right now, we can conserve water (in the Highland Lakes) and all it does is raise the trigger (for a release of water) and zip, it all goes down basin to the rice farmers. There is nothing to guarantee that in another crisis like a drought worse than the drought of record, that all of our conservation means we will still have access to water.

“The rice farmers who get all of that water don’t pay one penny for the dams. That’s all paid for by firm customers,” Tedder added. “If you start looking at what is happening, the firm customers are the ones who are paying the bills. Even though the dams help us, they were really designed to keep Austin from flooding and to help down basin, because a flood wipes everything out on down the river. It is just a hotbed of inconsistencies and unintended consequences of the water management plan. It has to be revisited and it has to be more effective.”

Tedder said some of the other state river authorities are adopting what they call “a safe yield,” which includes all water sold and all water used to account for the total volume of water that is being released in their basins.

“What we do not have (through LCRA) is a safe yield,” Tedder said. “There is no cushion for us. The way the modeling for LCRA works for us, it takes the lake down to zero and ‘it will rain again,’ they say. We don’t think that is a very good planning process.

“You have to plan for drought. Praying for rain is wonderful, but you have to plan for a drought.”

Tedder also noted there has been a “drastic reduction in the amount of inflows coming into the Highland Lakes” since 2018.

“Even though it has rained as much as it always does, the water is not coming down into Lake Buchanan,” Tedder said. “Lakes LBJ and Travis have been a little more lucky because they have the Llano River, which tends to flow almost all the time and it did during the last drought of record.

“We are no longer there at our historical averages. When you compare our current inflows to our drought of record, which is from 2008 to 2015, and you look at the amount of water that is not coming into the lakes, even in May, which is historically a wet month, we came in a little bit above the drought of record rain, but at about half of what the historical average was.”

According to LCRA data for inflows from the Highland Lakes, in May, the historical average for inflows is 202,496 acre-feet of water. An acrefoot of water is equal to about 325,851 gallons. During the drought of record, the average was 96,501 acre feet. In May 2021, the inflow was 113,992 acre feet.

“If there was ever anything that shows you that ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ it’s the inflow trend,” Tedder said. “CTWC is in the process of doing a study showing how not to look at historical average, but using real data every day, to determine our true water needs. It has been a twoyear process.”

Burnet County Judge James Oakley asked Tedder about the pricing at LCRA compared to that of the Brazos River Authority. He said 48 percent of Burnet County is under the Brazos River Authority, which had their annual meeting Tuesday as well.

“It was very enlightening when I attended one of their meetings a couple of years ago because they just have very little interaction with Burnet County, as opposed to how much we have with LCRA,” Oakley said. For their FY 22 budget, they have a proposed system water rate of $83 per acre-foot and a proposed agricultural water rate of $58.10 per acre-foot.”

LCRA has a water rate of $145 per acre-foot for firm water customers. The price for agricultural customers in the Garwood Irrigation Distict is $38.32 per acre-foot or $45.42 delivered while the price for customers in the Gulf Coast area is $63 delivered.

“We use Brazos River authority as an example of what LCRA should be doing,” Tedder said. “What BRA does is they charge a reasonable amount that’s proportional. Your firm customers are guaranteed, just like we are, and they have to do a water management plan. Your interruptibles can also be interrupted, but in the BRA, they have senior water rights. They have some of the oldest senior water rights in the state.

“Our rice farmers do not have senior water rights. All they have is a sweetheart relationship with LCRA, which they’ve had since the very beginning in the 1930s. It can be done contractually and there are studies which show LCRA can use water pricing as a tool for conservation. They just choose not to do that.”

Clara Tuma, public information officer for LCRA, said the authority had no comment on Tedder’s presentation.