LCRA announces new watering restrictions

We may have had a few good rains in Austin recently, but the drought is still on in Central Texas. On Wednesday, the Lower Colorado River Authority announced a limit on outdoor watering, asking cities, businesses, industries and other LCRA customers to limit watering to once per week. According to a statement to the press about the change, “Cities and utilities are required to enact the once-a-week restriction for their end use customers by May 1. This includes Austin, Briarcliff, Burnet, Cedar Park, Cottonwood Shores, Dripping Springs, Granite Shoals, Horseshoe Bay, Lago Vista, Leander, Marble Falls, Pflugerville, Sunrise Beach Village, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency and multiple Travis County municipal utility districts and water control and improvement districts.” The city of Austin already has a once-per-week watering limit in place. “Our reservoirs are stressed, and we need to do everything we can to preserve our supplies through this drought,” John Hofmann, LCRA executive vice president of water, said in a statement to the press. “We can’t make it rain, we can’t increase the amount of water flowing into the lakes and we can’t stop evaporation, which takes more water from the Highland Lakes every year than any single customer. What we can do is limit how much water we use, and that is what we’re doing here.” The watering restrictions are triggered when the combined storage drops below 45 percent in lakes Buchanan and Travis. On Wednesday, the combined storage was 42 percent. The watering restrictions were unanimously adopted by the LCRA board at its monthly meeting. Firm water customers that do not adopt the new regulations can face fines of up to $10,000 per day from the water authority.