LCRA has plans to protect the water for cities, industry and rice

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

Jobaid Kabir, senior water resources planner, explained how the LCRA manages water for the different contract areas in Central Texas. -Staff photo by Taylor

September 27, 2001 -- The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), a conservation and reclamation district created by the Texas Legislature in 1934, has one major objective...to improve the quality of life in the Central Texas area.

This includes operating a wholesale electric company as well as water sales and other services to communities and rural areas along the Colorado River.

LCRA operates six dams: Buchanan, Inks, Wirtz, Starcke, Mansfield and Tom Miller, which is leased from the City of Austin. The dams form six reservoirs...Lakes Buchanan, Inks, Lyndon B. Johnson, Marble Falls, Travis and Austin...known as the Highland Lakes.

What happens in the Highland Lakes area affects the water flow downstream and...eventually...hundreds of rice producers in South Central Texas.

Three irrigation systems distribute water across 812 miles of canals, primarily used for rice farming, and plans are under way to reduce water usage and operating costs, according to information from LCRA.

"If you want water and there's water in the River, you apply for a water right permit to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC). They do a computer model there...a water allocation model. They run that and find out whether there's water in the River, and when there is, they give that water right to you," said Jobaid Kabir, senior water resources planner for the LCRA WaterCo.

There are four major water districts in the Colorado River, according to Kabir. They include Lakeside, Gulf Coast, Pierce Ranch and Garwood, and some of their water rights were issued before LCRA was created.

"We have two kinds of contracts. One is called the firm contract and the other is called the interruptible contract. A firm contract is signed only with cities and industries and that water costs a lot of money. That water is about $105 an acre foot.

"If a rice irrigator needs water from our storage...first thing is...we still have those water rights. We try to exercise that water right and get it from the river and provide it to them. If we do that, it doesn't cost them (producers) a penny. It doesn't cost them a penny for the water, but it costs them money for pumping water from the river, putting it in the canal and providing it to them...the water is free," said Kabir.

The costs that are passed on to the producers are to cover the "cost of service," which includes maintaining the staff, running pipes and maintaining the canals, he added.

If there is not enough water in the River, the LCRA is able to release water from the Highland Lakes regions.

"When we do that (contract with farmers), we call that water 'interruptible water.' That interruptible water costs them only $4.50 per acre foot," said Kabir.

"Cities and industry are taking more water from the River, and less and less is being available for irrigation. Depending on how much water we have in those storages at the beginning of the year, we determine how much water we'll be able to provide for our irrigation customers, after meeting all of the cities and industry demands."

Each year, planning for future water usage is done using computer models which look at the period from 1947-56, or the "Drought of Record," as it is called at LCRA.

Water is guaranteed to cities and industries who have a firm contract, but rice producers who have an interruptible contract will be the first to suffer if a severe drought should occur.

"Up to this point, we have not had to interrupt anybody because we are able to meet our demands. But, we're coming to a point, in a few years time, we will see that we'll be interrupting if a drought comes. We came very, very close to interrupting this year," said Kabir.

"We were very lucky and our rice customers were very lucky that we didn't have to curtail them."

Along with serving cities, industry and irrigation customers, LCRA must meet the demands of bays and estuaries in the region to protect the environment for fish.

Every five years, LCRA revises a plan that allows them to make needed adjustments, as far as the contracts will allow. Focus groups are formed..a Water Management Plan Advisory Group...which includes the various organizations...rice producers, recreation administrators, cities, industry, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation, among about 30 invites, are brought together to address specific needs, said Kabir.

"As a public agency, our job is to balance all these needs and demands," he added.

Another water issue facing agriculture, today, concerns the "rule of capture," and is being addressed in the Texas Legislature, as it has been for several sessions.

"In the State of Texas, we have two areas of water law. We have surface water, which is owned by the State of Texas, and if we want to utilize that water, put it to a beneficial use...if it's from the Colorado River, and that's where most of the rice farmers irrigate...LCRA owns the water rights, we purchase it from them," said Robby Cooke, Representative of District 28 in the Texas House of Representatives.

"There are a lot of irrigators who own their own water rights and have an annual permit they renew. The point is, it's appropriated...called the 'Doctorate of Prior Appropriation'...and we do it this way because if we didn't have some orderly fashion of purchasing that water, folks upstream would get it all before folks downstream," he said.

For several sessions, the Texas Legislature has "shied away" from regulating ground water, said Cook.

The "rule of capture" allows land owners to drop a well on their private property and pump the water to the surface to put it to beneficial use. There's very little water law actually in the State of Texas, and is dictated by case law in the courts, said Cook.

"The State Legislature recognizes the ability...to regulate and manage ground water resources...of the State through local ground water conservation districts," said Cook.

According to Cook, the State prefers local control in the districts rather than State control. It allows citizens in the areas to make and follow up on situations that may be happening in their districts.

As far as LCRA, Cook said that some people like to say that they are not accountable to anyone, but he says that the Legislature formed them and could make them go away if they proved to be not be responsible.

"I think LCRA...by and large...has done a much better job at having meetings back down in the districts, having LCRA people talk to the farmers...grass roots meetings and things like that. They have one of the most important jobs in our region," ended Cook.