The Central Texas Water Coalition (CTWC) told the Lakeway City Council on Oct. 6 that a late-summer flood that briefly raised lake levels did not undo a multi-year drought and that regional water planning and lake release rules need tightening to protect municipal intakes and local economies.

Shannon Hamilton, the coalition's executive director, said lakes that briefly rose after heavy rainfall have already dropped and that hydrologic inflows remain far below historical averages. “Conservation is our new normal,” Hamilton told council members, emphasizing that inflows — the runoff that actually reaches reservoirs — declined 30 to 50 percent in many years and that evaporation and more frequent hot periods are worsening the supply outlook.

Hamilton summarized CTWC's technical findings and recommendations: raise the minimum combined storage trigger above the current 600,000 acre-feet level to give municipal intakes a larger buffer; adopt evaporation results in the next LCRA water-management plan; re-evaluate how agricultural contract allocations are triggered; and accelerate the plan update cycle so rules reflect the "new normal" of lower inflows. She said CTWC's peer-reviewed study and modeling will be submitted to the Texas Water Development Board and that the coalition is coordinating with the City of Austin, local water districts and other Highland Lakes stakeholders.

Hamilton noted specific operational details: Lake Buchanan was holding at about 95 percent of capacity while Lake Travis was roughly 84 percent, giving combined storage near 89 percent at the time of her presentation. She warned that projections released by LCRA indicate end-of-year combined storage may be near 1.6 million acre-feet and that, under some scenarios, Lake Travis could drop back toward operationally low elevations by early 2026.

On legislation and funding, Hamilton noted the upcoming statewide ballot measure commonly referenced as "Prop 4," which she said would allocate money for new water supply and infrastructure; she also described CTWC plans to seek statutory changes to Texas water code language (citing section 11.4041) to enable a protected storage reserve. Hamilton urged council participation in regional coordination meetings and invited council members to CTWC's next comment meeting on Nov. 20.

Council members asked about agricultural holders' readiness to receive contractual water and about how proposed reallocations would translate into lake-level changes; Hamilton said agriculture stakeholders are still seeking allocations but that model runs show substantial acre-feet moving under the proposed rules. Mayor Thomas Kilgore and several council members thanked CTWC for the presentation and noted the city's interest in continued regional collaboration.