Water trickling into Highland Lakes at record lows (Texas drought)

In the latest sign of how dry the current drought has been, Lower Colorado River Authority officials say the flow of water from streams and creeks into the Highland Lakes in June was the worst ever recorded.

Only 1,496 acre-feet flowed into the Highland Lakes, which serve as a reservoir system for more than a million Central Texans. In an average June, the lakes get 169,289 acre-feet.

The drying up of the lakes' tributaries is taking a human toll, as businesses on some parts of Lake Buchanan report that business is dire...

An acre-foot is enough water to satisfy the annual washing, watering and drinking needs of roughly three Austin households...

Sure to make Highland Lakes businesses and residents steam: The LCRA plans to release between 128,000 and 168,00 acre-feet of water for downriver farmers' purposes between now and the end of the year to grow a second crop of rice.

That picture shows how low the Pedernales River is and those structures are boathouses on dry land. This is the worst drought since 1895 - yes, 1895. This is day 40-something of 100+ temperatures with little to no rain in months. There have been burn bans in effect for months and there were bans on the 4th for fireworks and outdoor grills. People's water wells are going dry and getting low. Llano, TX was so low on water they hired a water witcher who found a new water source. There is more and more wildlife moving into human populated areas in search of water and bringing in fleas and rabies. There's a rise in rabies this year and several people have been bitten and had to get shots. With no water, many of the fish have died so that will affect the next few years of fishing. Of the 19 LCRA (river authority) boat ramps on their 5 lakes, only 6 are still open but 3 of those are expected to close any day. The drought is hurting the businesses dependant upon water recreation. But when the LCRA starts sending down water to the rice farmers near San Antonio, it's going to go from bad to worse.

Canyon Lake was down some over 4 Jul weekend, but not nearly as bad as 2 summers ago (down 20 feet or more - but I found two anchors I’d lost 22 years ago!). Not sure why Canyon’s avoiding the worst of it this year.

Colonel, USAFR

All the States that are affected with drought and floods get together and build a series of canals or pipelines to get the flood waters to the South West area of the States. That way you kill two birds with one stone. During the flooding from Snow melt and rains in the Northern States you ship the overflow from the major rivers and streams to the south.

I know it is not really financially practical for flood control or making a significant dent in a drought but I was wondering about using trains to move water from flooded areas to drought areas.

About 16 tanker cars would equal 1 acre foot of water. A 64 car train would carry 4 acre feet. If you filled and ran 10 such trains from differ areas in the flood zone. Repeating the process for 10 days, you could move 400 acre feet of water.

Just thinking out loud

I’m looking out my windows at Lake Travis, near Austin, and it’s a sad sight. I don’t think it’s down as far as it was a couple of years ago, but it is continuing to go down every day.

We haven’t had enough rain to make a difference—at my house, we’ve recorded just under 3 inches of rain in nearly 4 months.........

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