Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Featured Replies

6 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Tell that to Jimmy Blevins....

"You ain't never been struck by lightning. You don't know what it's like"

 

NSIAP 
On 4/19, Lake Travis was 41.6% full at 457k acre-feet.
On 6/19, Lake Travis was 44.3% full at 486k acre-feet.
Today, Lake Travis is 89.2% full at 979k acre-feet.

Lake Travis has added 160 billion gallons of water in the past 30 days.  170 billion since April.

Does anyone know how much water is used by Austin and other communities from the lake annually?

In this article from 2024, an LCRA spokesman claims that wind and evaporation is roughly equal to the consumption in the city of Austin.  1" every 5-6 days.  That was when the lake was at around 42%, which would mean a surface area of around 10k acres. 

So, 10k acre-inches per 5 days -> 833 acre-feet per 5 days -> 5000 acre-feet per month or 60k acre-feet per year.  This is around 1629 million gallons per month lost by evaporation and the same consumed by the city of Austin.

This LCRA link shows that Austin uses 140k acre-feet, so perhaps the 1" number at 10k acres (from the original article) is inaccurate.

This PDF Link (cut-paste below) shows that City of Austin pulls 60k acre-feet per year from the highland lakes (confirms the original link) and another 100k acre-feet are pulled from Lake Austin and other rivers.

Cedar Park, Leander, and TC WCD are pulling about 37k acre-feet from the highland lakes.

Thanks for asking, as I would not have gone down this temporary rabbit hole :)

 

 image.thumb.png.b85c6602f35eee208c09522b4181836b.png

Edited by boilerhorn

Just now, jimmyjazz said:

Did you just post your PhD dissertation?

Ha - if it were only that easy. ;)

In this article from 2024, an LCRA spokesman claims that wind and evaporation is roughly equal to the consumption in the city of Austin.  1" every 5-6 days.  That was when the lake was at around 42%, which would mean a surface area of around 10k acres. 
So, 10k acre-inches per 5 days -> 833 acre-feet per 5 days -> 5000 acre-feet per month or 60k acre-feet per year.  This is around 1629 million gallons per month lost by evaporation and the same consumed by the city of Austin.
This LCRA link shows that Austin uses 140k acre-feet, so perhaps the 1" number at 10k acres (from the original article) is inaccurate.
This PDF Link (cut-paste below) shows that City of Austin pulls 60k acre-feet per year from the highland lakes (confirms the original link) and another 100k acre-feet are pulled from Lake Austin and other rivers.
Cedar Park, Leander, and TC WCD are pulling about 37k acre-feet from the highland lakes.
Thanks for asking, as I would not have gone down this temporary rabbit hole [emoji4]
 
 image.thumb.png.b85c6602f35eee208c09522b4181836b.png

Whatever lol
On 7/17/2025 at 8:00 PM, InkaUtexas said:

 

One of my favorites of theirs. 

"Lives were somehow changed by a loathsome toothless geezer incoherent and deranged"

 

 

On 7/19/2025 at 11:05 AM, ftf82 said:

Does anyone know how much water is used by Austin and other communities from the lake annually?

Too much 

  • 2 months later...

Sorry for the thread bump. I just found this old graph and wanted to drop it in here for when this thread becomes relevant again.

image.png.ad6cb9ab23b985b73374faf89d859abe.png

Well...I'll apologize again for bumping this, but here is some relevant news. 

The Arbuckle Resevoir in Wharton is FINALLY operational and full after years of delays.

This helps by collecting any rains that fall south of Austin and anything that has to be passed for hydro-electric generation and allows it to be held in Wharton to feed the downstreams needs (Farmers, environmental), thereby reducing what has to be dropped out of Travis.

For context, the resevoir holds 40k acre feet. The CoA uses about 150k acre feet/year.

It was a clusterfuck project that LCRA deserves to be ridiculed for, but the actual purpose will be good for the region.

https://www.lcra.org/news/news-releases/arbuckle-reservoir-now-operational/

Edited by Orange&White
forgot to include the link

I can't complain about a new reservoir being built.  We probably need even more to be built.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.