AUSTIN, Texas — Drought conditions across the state are getting worse. Here in Austin, many areas are already feeling its effects.
Mark Wentzel is the Instream Flows Leader with the Texas Water Development Board. He said Lakes Travis and Buchanan are some of the main water reservoirs in Central Texas. The current combined storage for those lakes are more than 1.52 million acre-feet or 76% of capacity. Because of current drought conditions, Lake Travis is 10 feet below its average this time of the year, which has some experts concerned.
"It does impact us quite a bit," said Wentzel. "It's unfortunate to have it this low this time of the season."
As below normal precipitation, warmer and dryer weather continues, Texas State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon said the problem will continue to get worse.
"As temperatures go up, people start using more water outdoors," said Nielson-Gammon. "Reservoir levels can get depleted fairly quickly."
KVUE asked how soon until things start looking up.
"May and June are the wettest months of the year," said Nielson-Gammon. "So, it's quite possible to end the drought fairly quickly during the next few months. The problem is, if it doesn't end in May and June, that tends to mean that the summer is going to be relatively hot and dry."
And if the drought worsens, Wentzel said cities will start imposing restrictions.
"Then, it's really time to tighten the seatbelts," said Wentzel. "That would, you know, buckle up, get ready for some drought this summer. And so, the cities, the various water authorities, will start imposing their water restrictions and trying to go into the water management for drought conditions."
The stages within the City of Austin’s Drought Contingency Plan are triggered by the combined storage of Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis. Austin is always in the Water Conservation Stage, in which landscape watering is limited to one day a week for automatic irrigation systems and a second day for hose sprinklers.
A spokesperson at Austin Water outlined what needs to happen for Austin to go into water restrictions:
"Austin enters into Stage One Drought Response when the combined storage of Lake Buchanan and Travis reaches 1.4 million acre-feet*. Currently, the combined storage is 1.5 million acre-feet of water.
"The change residents would experience in Stage One is a shift in watering hours. Conservation Stage Watering Hours are between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m. Stage One Watering Hours would be between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m."
John Hofmann, LCRA executive vice president of water, said our water supply systems are built to handle multi-year droughts.
“We are in a drought that could last a while," said Hoffmann. "Our lakes were designed to handle both floods and droughts. And will fluctuate over the coming months as we go through the highest, driest part of the year, which also is the highest water use time of the year. With combined storage at more than 75%, our water supplies are more than sufficient to meet the needs of our region.”
Despite this, Wentzel suggests limiting the amount of time you water your lawn. It's best to conserve as much water as possible.
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