LCRA’s Board of Directors voted 8 to 7 at a special called meeting Tuesday to seek permission from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to cut off most downstream farmers if the combined storage of lakes Travis and Buchanan is below 1.1 million acre-feet, or about 55 percent of capacity, at 11:59 p.m. on March 1, 2014. Combined storage is currently about 727,000 acre-feet, or 36 percent of capacity, and the lakes are near historic lows.

The previous minimum combined storage for rice water was 850,000 acre feet.

If the TCEQ passes this, it will mean more bad things for waterfowl on the prairie and the people of Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado counties.

http://www.lcra.org/library/media/public...se-11-19-13.pdf

Really really sucks.

I have the opportunity to farm for an old farmer this coming season who is getting ready to hang it up. I would then possibly take over after that. Guess that ain't happening without water. Even though the drought is to blame, I still point fingers at the hippies.

FIFY

The highland lakes were designed for flood control, banking of water for irrigation, and hydro-electricity.

Now, people think it is for their jet-skis and multi-million dollar homes.

This could really hurt the locals downstream. Not to mention migratory birds, once all the rice farms go to rangeland or more likely, development.

The Lower Colorado River Authority has become the Upper Colorado River Authority. They have proven time and time again that their only real concern is their customers upstream

Meanwhile, the residents of Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado Counties are paying the price for their lack of foresight and inability to contingency plan.

This is crap. LCRA is crap. What can be done to stop them? They are putting hardworking Americans out of work. All so the property values around Lake Travis keep their value. With the growing population of the central Texas region the state has to do something to address the water issue. Desalination plants. Time to pony up the cash to get the infrastructure where it needs to be. The economic growth of the area is great,but lets not destroy the ecosystem.

The lakes were designed for agricultural purposes and now they want to turn around and protect recreational activities on the lakes……..Just not right.

Aren't they talking about making reservoirs down stream. For the rains that fall south of Travis will be caught here. This can be used to pump to the river for irrigation purposes. I forget how many millions of dollars it will cost though...I'd have to see it first to believe it, but it's gotta start with talk.

Supposedly we're looking at construction in 2017 or 2018, but I'll believe it when I see it.

What aggravates me the most is that there has been talk about downstream reservoirs for a long time and nothing has been done. They did a little work with gravel pits in Garwood and Columbus, but nothing has come of it.

This won't be spent, nor help overnight, but the passing of Proposition 6 will put $2 Billion towards water infrastructure....

http://www.governing.com/news/headlines/...e-spending.html

If we could just have some wet years and get out of the drought and stay out of it this stuff would kind of solve itself. But overall I think we will need to go through a big paradigm shift as far as people and water use...the days of big grass lawns may be numbered as more sustainable landscaping really makes sense as far as conservation.

Other deal...Last year at the DU winter counsel meeting they talked about how DU was going to start lobbying or working (not real sure about the details) with US Rice Federation. DU obviously sees the importance of rice agriculture to wintering waterfowl.