Utilities balance conservation, dependable water supplies
in considering Water Management Plan updates

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories exploring the diverse set of people and interests that depend on the Highland Lakes. The Lower Colorado River Authority is working to balance these needs as it updates the Water Management Plan for lakes Travis and Buchanan. A related video is available for viewing on lcra.org. News organizations may download the story from the media page at lcra.org.  This story looks at the issues faced by operators of municipal water utilities. Next in the series is a profile of the agricultural customers who depend on the lakes for irrigation water.

By John Williams
Lower Colorado River Authority

Last summer, as a two-year drought dropped lakes Travis and Buchanan to their lowest elevations in 50 years, many people began to ask: Will we have enough water to outlast the drought?

Probably no one asked that question with greater concern than the managers of municipal utilities that depend upon water from lakes Buchanan and Travis to serve local neighborhoods and businesses. 

One year later, rains have largely replenished the lakes and the region's water supply.  But had the drought persisted for a third year, many utilities might be looking at water contracts that could not be completely fulfilled had lakes Travis and Buchanan dropped to all-time low elevations.

That prospect is very much on the minds of the three municipal utility representatives who, as part of a 16-member advisory committee, are providing input to LCRA on the next update to its Water Management Plan, which spells out how and when water from the Highland Lakes can be used, especially during periods of drought.

"We have to think about (how prolonged severe drought) changes the way we manage water in the Highland Lakes," said Greg Meszaros, director of Austin's water utility, which serves about 900,000 customers, including a diverse base of state agencies, high-tech industries and the University of Texas.

The other utility representatives include David Vaughn, Burnet assistant city manager, and Earl Foster, former general manager of Kingsland Water Supply Corporation who now heads Lakeway Municipal Utility District. Each utility serves a population of about 6,500, mostly residential customers including retirees as well as a growing number of residents who commute to Austin; Burnet also serves a county jail, state prison and a semiconductor industry.

The three utilities responded last summer when LCRA, as part of the Water Management Plan, asked customers to impose mandatory restrictions especially on outdoor water uses, which accounts for most municipal consumption.

"We have a serious commitment to water conservation," Austin's Meszaros said.  "We're the only Texas city to implement mandatory year-round conservation, whether we're in a drought or not."

All three utilities were successful in slashing their water consumption – but literally at a cost, as revenues from summer outdoor water use can generate much of a utility's total annual revenue base. Meszaros estimates the mandatory restrictions may have cost Austin millions of dollars in revenues.

Foster said the Kingsland utility also experienced a shortage of funds. The Burnet utility did not meet its budget for the first time in several years, according to Vaughn. For the smaller utilities, raising rates is not a first option, given the number of customers in their base who are on low or fixed incomes.

"It's an operational issue that we need to address, because the likelihood is that it's going to happen more and more, not less and less," Vaughn said.

The drought's threat of a curtailed water supply held a certain irony for the utilities, which hold "firm" water contracts with LCRA for sufficient amounts to meet the needs of populations that are projected to double in the next 40 to 50 years. (In fact, the contracts allow firm water supplies to be cut back if conditions surpass the worst recorded hydrologic drought the region has experienced – a threshold that last year's drought was on the brink of surpassing.)

"It was something you could see coming by seeing how low Lake Buchanan was," Vaughn said. "It was an easy thing to understand that we didn't have the water we've had in years past."

While the utilities were cutting back, they noted that another group of customers, farmers growing rice and other crops, had seemingly received their requested supplies with no cutbacks – especially since much of the water was "interruptible" and subject to curtailment.

"It was a bit of an irony for us that we ended up curtailing water," Meszaros said.  "But the water for agricultural use had already been released for the year.  There was no pulling that back, even though the drought was intensifying."

Meszaros, Foster and Vaughn agree that, while agricultural water needs are important, municipal needs should receive top priority in the Water Management Plan.

"Nothing against rice irrigation, but there's got to be a priority for potable use and that it comes first," Foster said.

"Human consumption should come first," Vaughn added. "But the farmers' livelihoods are at stake."

Balancing those divergent needs is why the panel members say revising LCRA's Water Management Plan will be a difficult, but worthy, endeavor.

"I know everyone has a tendency to think, 'This is our water,'" Vaughn said. "It's not our water.  It belongs to the basin.  It's our job to use the water the best way we can and that it will benefit the citizens in the area that we represent."

John Williams is a senior communications specialist with LCRA.