LCRA cuts off Highland Lakes water to some agricultural customers
The river authority said this will affect the second growing season, which is from August to mid-October.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Lower Colorado River Authority said it will cut off water to agricultural customers in the lower Colorado River basin this year because of a severe drought in Central Texas.
The river authority said this will affect the second growing season, which is from August to mid-October. Water for the first growing season will be uninterrupted, per the Saturday announcement.
This will affect agricultural customers in Colorado, Wharton and Matagorda counties, which are southwest of Houston. This will not affect the water supply to cities, businesses and industries.
Previous water cutoffs happened in the second growing season of 2018 and between 2012 and 2015 for interruptible customers. This is the first cutoff in the 2020 water management plan.
LCRA said the Hill County watershed is in "extreme drought" per the U.S. Drought Monitor. Lakes Buchanan and Travis are expected to continue declining in water supply through the summer, the river authority said.
“We have plenty of drinking water supplies available in the Highland Lakes, but we need to start tapping the brakes on water use because we don’t know when this drought will end,” John Hofmann, the executive vice president of water, said in a statement.
The LCRA also entered its Stage 1 drought response, which requests municipality and industry customers to voluntarily reduce water use by 5%.