Survey Results -
Question #3: "Which Statements Do You Believe Apply to the New Water Treatment Plant of the City of Austin?" |
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In August, a survey was distributed to all Water Matters newsletter subscribers asking for their response to four questions concerning current lake issues. The responses to the third question are described in this article. Responses to the last question will be discussed in the next issue of this newsletter.
Question #3 was, "Which statements do you believe apply to the new water treatment plant of the City of Austin?" Respondents were asked to choose "yes" or "no" to each of six statements about the WTP4 water treatment plant planned for the shore of Lake Travis.
A total of 185 persons from 28 different localities completed the questionnaire.
To read the balance of this article, click here.
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The LCRA Water Management Plan |
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 The lead article in the May 2008 issue of Water Matters newsletter was titled, "Whatever Happened to the Water Management Plan?" The article referred to the LCRA's Water Management Plan (WMP), which the agency has used since 1989 as the operational guide for LCRA water management staff. The WMP is also used as a means of letting those of us who live and work near the Colorado River know what to expect in case of flood or drought conditions. LCRA's water rights are described in the plan, and priorities for allocation of water supplies are laid out.
The question about what had happened to the WMP arose because LCRA has published a revision to the WMP about every five years since the first plan was published in 1989. The latest revision to the plan was completed in 2003 and submitted to the TCEQ for approval at that time. Whereas, approval from the LCRA's water regulatory agency, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), had been routine in the past, six years have passed without approval for the latest revision. A recent letter from Mark Vickery, executive director of TCEQ, explains the delay.
Mr. Vickery points out in his letter that the WMP revision was one of several complicated applications submitted by LCRA in recent years. The other applications, submitted prior to the WMP revision, include an application for all of the excess flow in the basin, and another is for the movement of the very senior Garwood water right upstream from the rice counties to the more heavily populated counties in the LCRA's water service area. Since these applications were submitted prior to the WMP revision, they were considered first by TCEQ staff.
In the case of the WMP application, TCEQ staff is near completion of a draft of its technical review and response. When complete, these will be submitted to LCRA and to the "protestants" who actively oppose approval by TCEQ of any and all of the current LCRA applications. In a contested case, the application will be subject to a hearing before being submitted to the Commission for a decision.
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