Austin's water woes continue (Spring: 2013, how much, homes)

[Trainwreck20]

Well, this is looking more like it 'should' for this time of year...

http://images.intellicast.com/WxImag...hic/tgsfc1.gif

Several troughs out there and one even tagged as an 'L' (the one just off of West Africa).

I suppose this graphic will update and change, eh? Not sure if it will archive or update.

[Trainwreck20]

Yup, it did update, but it shows two troughs off the African coast...come, keep it together now .

[Weatherguy]

I would like to see the Statesman do a 2 or 3 page spread on just where we're going with this water situation. They need to pin down LCRA and other agencies and give us some major details, not just soundbites.

So if we get no substantial rain upstream, exactly when to the hydrological computer models predict that we will run out of water? When do tighter restrictions kick in in each major central Texas community?

Why are there no restrictions yet on water permits?

If the LCRA had not been releasing water to the rice farmers, at what levels would the lakes be today?

Have any businesses declined to move to the Austin area because of our water problems? Are they being warned?

Have prospective newcomers declined to move to the area because of our water problems? How aware are they of our problems?

The Statesman could research all of the above and provide an informative article. Its time has come.

As for me, I had planned to move eastward a year ago due to the water problems here, but due to health issues, I could not. I'm still planning to do it as soon as I can. I would like to live where I can wash my car at my own home, have lower risk of foundation problems, have a nice lawn and garden, and experience weather that is more interesting instead of weeks on end of the same. That's just my input, and others have other priorities. I realize that.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by Weatherguy

I would like to see the Statesman do a 2 or 3 page spread on just where we're going with this water situation. They need to pin down LCRA and other agencies and give us some major details, not just soundbites.

So if we get no substantial rain upstream, exactly when to the hydrological computer models predict that we will run out of water? When do tighter restrictions kick in in each major central Texas community?

Why are there no restrictions yet on water permits?

If the LCRA had not been releasing water to the rice farmers, at what levels would the lakes be today?

Have any businesses declined to move to the Austin area because of our water problems? Are they being warned?

Have prospective newcomers declined to move to the area because of our water problems? How aware are they of our problems?

The Statesman could research all of the above and provide an informative article. Its time has come.

As for me, I had planned to move eastward a year ago due to the water problems here, but due to health issues, I could not. I'm still planning to do it as soon as I can. I would like to live where I can wash my car at my own home, have lower risk of foundation problems, have a nice lawn and garden, and experience weather that is more interesting instead of weeks on end of the same. That's just my input, and others have other priorities. I realize that.

Lake Travis was last full in spring of 2010. We're a little over 3 years into what increasingly is looking like a new drought of record. Right now Lake Travis is less than 1/3 full.

The 1940s drought lasted 10 years. Anyone want to bet it can't happen again? What will the Lake Travis look like in another 3 years another 5 or 6 years? It took 3 years to get to 1/3 full. In hot and dry weather the lake is dropping 3-5 feet every month. That's without sending water to rice farmers.

I certainly hope LCRA is in full on panic mode right now because when the lakes reach 10 % of capacity and there's no rain in sight it'll be too late.

LCRA should be dramatically increasing rates on water usage. Nudging and cajoling doesn't work. Price the water sufficiently high and people will start taking the steps they should be doing to conserve water.

It doesn't help to have water restrictions when you're selling increasingly scarce resource at rock bottom prices. Mind you some will continue to pay to water their lawns at even high rates.., that's fine, so long as they're paying appropriately high amounts the LCRA can use the additional revenue to produce more water for the region.

[Trainwreck20]

Part of the problem is that much of the water is lost right now to evaporation and/or to required minimum stream flows (you don't really want to kill the entire CO river downstream of Austin). At some point in the not-so-distant future (next summer?), they really may need to ban lawn watering all together. 'Inside' water use has an almost negligible impact on the lakes.

As for releasing water to rice farmers, I think someone did post that analysis and it was something like 22 feet higher if they had not released water to the farmers in 2010.

[Gorfml]

If they ban lawn watering they better let us water our trees...

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by Gorfml

If they ban lawn watering they better let us water our trees...

If it comes to that -- gray water can be used for the trees. Either with a formal system or just buckets in the shower to catch water. As it is, every time I make pasta, I let the water cool and it goes to one of my trees! I'd love to catch the water from the washer and reuse it too.

As was mentioned, evaporation is becoming a big problem.

10 year droughts are killer. No one but farmers notice for the first 2-3 years, then years 3-6 it becomes a problem to manage and endure, after that people start throwing in the towel and move with their feet.

Northern Syria endured a similar intense drought and it provided the tinder to the current conflagration.

[owlman]

The City of Austin restriction level seem kind of dumb to me. Stage 1 and 2 let people run sprinklers twice a week, stage 3 once a week... oooh big deal Then stage 4 is NO outdoor watering, even by hand! That's a huge jump!

[squatt3r]

its a logarithmic scale

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Part of the problem is that much of the water is lost right now to evaporation and/or to required minimum stream flows (you don't really want to kill the entire CO river downstream of Austin). At some point in the not-so-distant future (next summer?), they really may need to ban lawn watering all together. 'Inside' water use has an almost negligible impact on the lakes.

As for releasing water to rice farmers, I think someone did post that analysis and it was something like 22 feet higher if they had not released water to the farmers in 2010.

The vast majority of the water used in the last 3 years has gone to the rice farmers. The total water consumptionwill be far less now that they have been cut off. The following Austin numbers is for outdoor landscape irrigation, all numbers are in acre-feet of water. http://www.city-data.com/forum/30915470-post4.html