Lake Travis is 61% Empty - Austin Water Supply Alternatives

[Exiled Texan]

How did that line of storms come through and totally skip Austin? Who did we **** off?

[Shredding_Gnar78]

Satellite picture of Bastrop

[mickey65]

Originally Posted by Exiled Texan

How did that line of storms come through and totally skip Austin? Who did we **** off?

Don't feel bad. Round Rock didn't get any love from Mother Nature either.

[buffettjr]

Are we maybe being a little over dramatic about the balance of our need for fresh water vs the supply? Texas gets an awful lot of rain. Austin gets as much rain as Seattle does, at 30 inches per year. Corpus Christi gets nearly twice that, at 51 inches per year. It rains A LOT in a normal year. We go through droughts occasionally, but this isn't Las Vegas. I think we'll be just fine, even if we really do add the 700,000 people over 30-40 years the new city plan assumes, and especially if we focus on urban density over those 30 years like the plan attempts, instead of endless Manor,TX style developments with gigantic St. Augustine lawns and no shade trees.

[Gorfml]

man that bastrop pic looks BAD!

[Weatherguy]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

I agree, similar to growing corn in western Kansas.

Bad analogy, which implies that rice is grown in west Texas. It is not. It is grown in coastal areas that normally have a lot of rain. Rice, however, needs even more water, and therein lies the problem.

[Weatherguy]

Originally Posted by mm57553

Our grass usually goes dormant in November anyway, and we don't water when it's dormant, so going to stage 3 then shouldn't really have much of an impact. And the heat won't be so bad (hopefully), so impact to foundations should be minimal.

However, my bigger concern is that next year will be a repeat of this year, in which case we're in serious trouble.

Don't forget that trees have to have water during the winter. They don't have to be watered as often as during the summer, though.

[Weatherguy]

Originally Posted by buffettjr

Are we maybe being a little over dramatic about the balance of our need for fresh water vs the supply? Texas gets an awful lot of rain. Austin gets as much rain as Seattle does, at 30 inches per year. Corpus Christi gets nearly twice that, at 51 inches per year. It rains A LOT in a normal year. We go through droughts occasionally, but this isn't Las Vegas. I think we'll be just fine, even if we really do add the 700,000 people over 30-40 years the new city plan assumes, and especially if we focus on urban density over those 30 years like the plan attempts, instead of endless Manor,TX style developments with gigantic St. Augustine lawns and no shade trees.

Corpus Christi's average precip is about the same as Austin's. However, the 51 inches you mentioned is about what Houston gets on average (this year, of course, is a big exception).

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Weatherguy

Bad analogy, which implies that rice is grown in west Texas. It is not. It is grown in coastal areas that normally have a lot of rain. Rice, however, needs even more water, and therein lies the problem.

That is true regarding rice. However, the corn also requires massive amounts of irrigation near the feedlot packing plant commercial ag meag-complexes of southwest KS, Oklahoma, and Texas. This model is not sustainable, but is profitable by big business in the short-term.