In how Texas will allocate its water
AUSTIN — When it comes to water planning, neither the Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages Austin-area lakes, nor the state water plan takes the needs of boaters and marinas formally into account. Instead, the focus is on residential, industrial, environmental and agricultural use.
But a nascent movement in the Legislature is afoot to elevate the demands of recreational users, a decision that could have major consequences for how water is allocated along state rivers.
Such a proposal faces a steep uphill climb, with opposition likely to emerge from industries, environmentalists and farmers, all of which have their own stake in the state’s rivers. But even the prospect of its introduction amid a historic drought in Texas suggests how lakeside interests across the state have
tried to press an increasing advantage over downriver agricultural communities as the state grows more urban and suburban. The mere possibility of such a change reverberates in the Colorado River basin, where lakesiders have long argued that water ought to be kept in lakes Travis and Buchanan to benefit marinas rather than be released downriver for water-intensive agricultural purposes, such as the rice farming.
Recreation and other forms of economic development have “got to be taken into consideration,” said state Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland. Keffer, who served as a member of the House Natural Resources committee last session, said he plans to propose legislation in late January.
In a letter sent to members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee in September, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, RGranbury, offered a similar message.
“It is incumbent upon the appropriate state entities — with direction from the Legislature — to ensure that the impact on communities, businesses and individ- uals is considered when permitting an authority’s use of this precious resource,” Birdwell wrote.
Keffer and Birdwell represent communities along Lake Granbury, a dammed lake on the Brazos River that includes Williamson County in its basin.
State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview that he would give such a proposal a hearing. He said he wasn’t sure it would get out of committee, let alone through the Legislature as a whole.
“The lakes are for the health and safety of the public, for drinking water and for industrial use. It’s for the use of the people paying for it. In many cases, that means not for recreation and not for property values,” Fraser said.
Policy makers have long held that recreation isn’t a critical, necessary use of the water.
The prospect got an injection of seriousness when Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst included it on a list of issues he wanted lawmakers to investigate before the next legislative session begins.
Keffer’s and Birdwell’s constituents who live along Lake Granbury have seen it drop to nearly 10 feet below its historic average for October.
In the Colorado River basin, where lakes Travis and Buchanan are 41 and 24 feet below average, respectively, the upriver interests have had the upper hand in recent years.
As the legislative session nears, downriver interests face some deepseated political challenges.
Outmuscled by Fraser and state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, had been relegated to getting what he could for farming interests in recent years. Hegar is now in line to become comptroller in November. The best hope of the farming interests could be state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who is eager to show herself as an agriculture supporter as she runs for Hegar’s seat.
Hoping to pool their clout, farmers have teamed up with downriver school districts, hunting and fishing guides, birding groups and nature tourism businesses to press for more upriver water conservation, enforcement of drought-period watering restrictions and the construction of new water supplies.
Calling themselves the Lower Colorado River Basin Coalition, they argue that agriculture, businesses, industry, communities and the environment are in jeopardy.