As Texas Lake Levels Fall, Residents Fret
June 21, 2011 |
Texas Tribune
by Kate Galbraith and Matt Largey
As Lake Buchanan drops lower each day amid one of the most intense droughts in Texas history, Donna Williams, owner of the Thunderbird Resort on the lake, fears for her business.
What was once almost 20 feet of water in the nearby cove is now down to just a few feet, so there’s no convenient place to swim (except for the pool), and the boat ramp is dry.
People call and ask if there’s water in the lake before making the trip. “Basically, what you begin to pray every day and worry about every day is, ‘How are we going to be able to do this?'" Williams says. "How are we going to be able to keep doing this without water?’”
On the perimeter of Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis in Central Texas, many business owners and residents are wondering the same thing. The lakes are 59 percent full — which translates to containing about 29 percent less water than the long-term average — and they are dropping quickly.
The Colorado River, which replenishes them, has shrunk to a shadow of itself, and farmers and cities continue to demand water from the lakes for their fields and lawns and homes.
The results are stark: On Lake Buchanan, for example, boat piers 10 feet tall stand dry, nothing but sandy gravel beneath them. Lake residents and business owners complain that their needs are treated as secondary to those of farmers and cities.
“As we have been told, we’re two buckets of water — that’s what we’re for,” says Jo Karr Tedder, who represents Lake Buchanan property owners on a 10-year plan currently being crafted to allocate usage of the lakes' water.
Link to the original online article
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