A system of dams and reservoirs was designed to hold in floodwaters. Crews monitor the water coming into the system and figure out when to store or release it downstream to decrease flood risk.
Central Texas experienced torrential rain over the July Fourth holiday weekend, leading to major flooding. More than 100 people died in six counties, including several children at an all-girls Christian summer camp on the Guadalupe River.
Many more were displaced from their homes.Austin, deep in drought up until this month, is now watching its severely depleted water reservoirs rise to levels not seen in years. This week the Lower Colorado River Authority even had to open four floodgates on Lake Buchanan for the first time since 2019 to manage the flow.“Historically, we go through lengthy drought periods that are then broken by significant major flood events,” said John Hofmann, executive vice president for water at the Lower Colorado River Authority."While we don't often have them in July, it's not unprecedented.”But those fast-filling reservoirs did more than replenish water supplies, they also stopped more devastating flooding. “Imagine the Colorado River through Austin with nothing to prevent those floods from rushing through town or anywhere along the river," said Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.It was really bad. Massively destructive flooding seemed to happen about every 10 years on average. Floods wiped out city dams, overtopped bridges and killed hundreds. One event washed scores of dead buffalo from the high plains all the way to the streets of Austin. Another formed a lake 65 miles wide between the mouths of the Colorado and Brazos rivers.Two of those lakes, Travis and Buchanan, also store the region’s water supply, and Lake Travis maintains extra space to store excess floodwaters. When flooding rains come, the LCRA staffs a river operations center around the clock to monitor the water coming into the system and figure out when to store or release it downstream to decrease flood risk. It was the anticipation of more water coming into the lakes from upstream that prompted the LCRA to open the floodgate this week, passing some water from Buchanan, which was filling to capacity, down to Travis, which still has storage space left. “It's really critical in our part of the world that you have streamflow gauges to support your decision-making,” Hofmann said. “We have over 275 gauges in our hydromet system that allow us to basically have eyes on what's happening out in the watershed. So we're less likely to be surprised by these flash-flood events.” With no system to capture or control the flow of water in those creeks, rainwater can quickly overtop banks and crash into streets and neighborhoods, just like what happened last week in Travis County’sEnergy & Environment In 1991, heavy rains caused river flooding downstream from Austin, prohibiting the LCRA from releasing water from Lake Travis and causing the reservoir to reach its highest level ever recorded — That flood swamped 300 homes that had been built in the floodplain of Lake Travis — though officials said the results could have been far more ruinous without the reservoir in place. Experts also said massive rains will likely fall some day at exactly the wrong place and time. That could overwhelm the LCRA's system of water management and bring disastrous flooding back to the Lower Colorado River.,"an LCRA study estimated that a Hill Country storm like Allison would have forced LCRA to open all 24 of Mansfield Dam’s floodgates — something that has never happened. " “One day such a flood will occur, and its impact will be even more devastating to a basin that is much more heavily populated and urbanized than it was seven decades ago,” LCRA's chief meteorologist, Bob Rose, is quoted as saying.But, this time around, Colorado River flooding does not seem to be in the cards. While Lake Buchanan has now filled to capacity, Hofmann said, Lake Travis — which is currently 87% full — will likely stay a few feet under full. If Lake Travis' water storage space were to reach capacity, any additional floodwaters would enter its"flood pool" — extra storage space maintained to prevent water from cresting the lake.“The flood storage is almost as much as the water supply storage at Lake Travis,” he said. That means there is still effectively another Lake Travis’ worth of space upriver to gather in more floodwaters in the event of more rains.Mose Buchele focuses on energy and environmental reporting at KUT. Got a tip? Email him at mbuchele@kut.org. Follow him on Twitter @mosebuchele.A system of dams along the Colorado River was created for a few purposes. It was created for agricultural storage and also as a kind of recreation.In the late 1800s, Austin's elite decided a dam was what was needed to attract more people and industry to the city. But dams weren't cheap. And to get taxpayers to foot the bill, it had to be built for the public good.While the storms’ full environmental impacts may take weeks to assess, Austin-area officials warn they could be serious and will include a rise in the city's mosquito population.Austin Water said improvements in how it monitors the system and an increase in water line breaks pushed up estimates from last year.Once complete, the bridge will connect the city's most popular trail at a long-overlooked corner of the lake. A nearby pedestrian tunnel under Pleasant Valley Road is already tunneled through.PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked to several cancers and other health problems. Out of 29 compounds tested, Austin Water found only faint traces of six.Austin City Council promised to revisit its water plans after members of an key advisory panel said they were not ambitious enough.Many people wonder whether the Colorado River that runs through Texas is related to the other Colorado River that created the Grand Canyon. It's not.
LCRA Lake Buchanan Lake Travis Longhorn Dam Austin Tx Dam Flooding Floods Highland Lakes
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