A lawsuit has been filed against the Lower Colorado River Authority by Kenneth Wynne, attorney, and his brother, Robert Wynne, plaintiff, who own homes in Cottonwood Shores on Lake Travis. The plaintiff claims that his property values have been reduced by the low lake levels of Lake Travis during 2009. He is asking that LCRA be limited to those functions, recreation, reclamation and conservation, mentioned in the constitutional amendment which created LCRA, and that LCRA stop performing those commercial activities, sale of water and electricity, which were not mentioned in that originating constitutional amendment.
The suit contends that the operation by LCRA of coal or gas-fired power plants was never authorized in the Texas Constitution, but that these plants have become the principal focus of LCRA. The suit further contends that the operation of these thermo-electric plants by LCRA is "directly causing it" to reduce lake levels in Lake Travis below those levels which can support the lake's "constitutionally required availability for recreation and navigation." The suit states that, "The LCRA has far escaped its tether" by operating thermoelectric generating plants, and that this "unconstitutional commercial business" is contributing to "the depletion of Lake Travis."
In 1975, an amendment to LCRA's enabling legislation, according to the suit, first referred to "commercial use," and this was when LCRA started building its first coal-fired electric generating plant. Wynne contends that the LCRA's enabling statute cannot "grant anything more than is constitutionally authorized."
LCRA's sales of irrigation water to the rice industry are "archaic," according to the suit, and "are part of the problem." The same is said by the suit to be true of the sale of cooling water to the South Texas Nuclear Project and the "excessive" volume of water permitted by LCRA to flow into Matagorda Bay.
The suit asks that the court require LCRA to (1) maintain the water level in Lake Travis no lower than 660 feet above sea level, and (2) discontinue operating thermoelectric power plants.
LCRA Response
The LCRA responds to the suit by saying that "if the claims of the lawsuit were correct, then LCRA could not provide water to communities in the basin, to farmers to grow crops, or to power providers to make electricity. LCRA owns and operates power plants pursuant to authority granted directly by the elected representatives in the Legislature. The idea that the Legislature has acted illegally for over 35 years is a gross misconception."
Readers who are interested in reading more of the 18-page lawsuit document, which is summarized above, may do so by clicking
here
