L.C.R.A. (Lower Colorado River Athority) anounced last month I believe there intension to build two more lakes between Austin and Houston area for storage lakes. As we get flash floods often in the hill country instead of just releasing from dam to dam in this area and sending it down to flood the rice farmers now they will be able to capture our water when flooding and save it down stream for the farmers prior to it hitting the Gulf.

Here is how a lake works in case you need to be educated yourself. The creek/river flows into said lake causing it to fill up. After filling up (follow me) the water goes out of the gate/spillway and heads on down the creek/river making it's way to where it was going to go originally. No water lost (except may evaporation) but there is a whole bunch of now extra water for whatever use it be. Maybe you have never seen a dam gate? You ever heard of the "dead zone" in the gulf, if not you might to google it. Not all freshwater in the gulf is a good thing.
By the way seafood is tasty.

There has never been or ever will be enough water in any river in north or west Texas to come close to the demand of just DFW without Lakes.Right now Dallas/FT.Worth are buying LAKE water from east Texas.Then look back at what happened around 1948 to FT.Worth before Flood Control (BENBROOK)Water got up to second floor Downtown 7th street.Those people were literly real Tree Huggers trying not to get sweep away .Maybe the answer is for DFW,San Antone,Houston'to go over to that mighty Colorodo river And pump it dry.It would take maybe 5 min.

I saw a post earlier on this about how is San Angelo doing now since Ivie is getting low but then I think, well, how would they be doing if they never impounded Ivie. I think we are stupid if we only rely on ground water for the future.

Flows in rivers have a NATURAL cycle. If you mess that cycle up (i.e. store water or release water when flows are supposed to be naturally low) you start a chain reaction. All the animals in the rivers and the bays have evolved over time to that NATURAL cycle. Mother nature did it right, we just screw things up.

And if you would read about the "dead zone" in the gulf, it has nothing to do with the amount of freshwater that is entering the Gulf. The Mississippi River historically dumped TONS of water in the gulf. Do you think there is more or less water going to the gulf now from the Mississippi? LESS! There are a ton of dams and diversions on the Mississippi so your logic that freshwater is causing the deadzone is incorrect. If you read about the deadzone, it's actually eutrophication (nutrient enrichment) that is causing the dead zone. Agricultural runoff (i.e. excess fertilizers) are running into the rivers and the delta. The excess nutrients causing abnoraml plankton blooms. The higher than normal plankton blooms use up all the available oxygen causing anoxic conditions, thus creating a "dead zone" due to the lack of oxygen.

While we are on the Mississippi, here is another example of how river alterations, specifically daming a river can have sever impacts. Remember that little event Hurican Katrina? Well we all know what happend. So over the years of having dams and diversions on the Mississippi, the sediment load has decreased. Sediment from rivers is the NUMBER ONE building block of marshes. As we all know, the marshes on the Mississippi delta are disappearing (throughout the world for that matter due to human impacts to river flows and sediment loads). If there was a healthy marsh on the Mississippi delta, the effects of Huricane Katrina would not have been as severe. The marsh could have buffered some of the storm surge.

LCRA Plans


For excess flood waters.

Just for clarification, EXCESS is a misnomer. There isn't any EXCESS. Lets look at this from the bays perspective.

The bays are already seeing reduced freshwater inflows (which are vital for the health/survival) due to dams/upstream water uses. Texas has some of the most productive bays in the US and the health/survival of these systems is dependent on the freshwater inflow from rivers, as well as the sediments and nutrients (not more than usual) to maintian it's health/survival. So our bay systems are already forced to deal with stressful conditions of reduced flows.

So now we bring in the "EXCESS" flood flows diversion proposal. Typically, a bays health is determined by the total annual volume of freshwate that reaches the system. Normal flows in a river (typically called BASE flows, and are already reduced mind you) can not account for the total annual freshwater volume that is needed to keep a bay system healthy. High flow pulses and overbanking flows (flood flows) are absolutely necessary to reach the total annual volume of freshwater need to maintain an healthy bay. This "EXCESS" flood flows diversion proposal will SCALP the high flow pulses and flood flows, thus reducing the total annual volume of freshwater that reaches the bay. What do you think will happen to the bays?

So, we are already stressing the bays already with reduced baseflows, so if we take out the "EXCESS" flows, the bays will become hypersaline and no shrimp, crabs, redfish, trout will be left since they ALL require marsh habitat that is TOTALLY DEPENDENT on freshwater inflows.

Texas sure aint on the Miss.and none of that would apply here,so lets take down all the dams in Texas,(pretend )so whats your magic solution for enough water for this big ole dry state.

Texas is on the Gulf and the river systems do flow into the Gulf and there are estuaries where those Texas rivers flow into the gulf and there are shrimp and oysters and redfish that depend on that flow....so.....I guess it does apply here, unless the Mississippi River is the only river that flows into the Gulf which seems to be your point.
As for a magic solution, hmmmm, let's see, water conservation maybe? Ever heard of it?
Nothing wrong with a reservoir here and there, but no sense in damming every piece of moving water in the state just so Chris Chris can water his lawn and Skippy can play on his jet-ski.

I wasn't comparing Texas to Mississippi. You brought Mississippi up with the "dead zone". I've never advocated for taking down all the dams. Thats just ignorant. The dams that are here, are here to stay. I'm fully aware of that.

I also didn't claim to have all the answers. One suggestion would be to push for stricter water conservations measures. We are in the middle of a drought and I saw a sprinkler systems going off at 1 in the afternoon! So why should we risk the health of our rivers and bays, which we are responisble for providing future generations the ability to enjoy them the way we do today, for some idiot that is just wasting water. I find that VERY wrong.

My purpose was to merely bring some scientific facts so that people can make informed decisions. If you are alright with building more reservoirs that could mean the end of bays in Texas, that's your deal. As for me, I like to make informed decisions, and there was some misinformation being presented in this discussion. I'm not a tree hugger. I hunt and I am diehard bass fisherman and LOVE going down to the coast to fish. But because of my profession, I'm more familiar with the cause/effects and the science behind this issue than most. I don't really like chimming in on these types of threads, but if I can inform people on the issues, then it makes it worth my time.

No you didnt get my point.My point is thats Texas is a differant situation.I know where our rivers flow and also know water conservation is good but want solve the problem.If lakes are managed right stream flow can continue.then you and skippy can get a drink .

What is Texas's different situation (again, I wasn't comparing Texas to Mississippi, you said that too much freshwater is causing problems in the gulf, and I merely pointed out to you that was false)?

How should a reservoir be managed right? You would think that after 50years of having reservoirs they would be managing them right? The fact is, once you put a reservoir on a mainstem river, you're going to mess things up no matter what. That's why they are called "RESERVOIRS" not river/bay management impoundments...

Could you build a reservoir and manage it in a way that could reduce the negative impacts to the rivers and bays? YES! But good luck tryinig to convince a river authority or water management district to spend millions on a project and have it operate in a way that would be somewhat protective of the environment. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. That would cut into their bottom dollar because they see water leaving the gates of their projects as dollars being washed downstream. They are short sighted. They are looking out for number one, THEMSELVES. They don't care that their project would impact the livelyhoods of people downstream. They just care about how to make a quick buck, and how much more they are are going to charge YOU becuase they have to recoup all the costs associated with building a reservoir.

The new LCRA permit makes a little more sense to me after reading it. They are talking pulling water in times of flood and high water times and storing it in reservoirs off the main river channel. That is exactly what our small city and many others have done for years. The difference now being those times of flood and high water or getting to be fewer and fewer. Our runoff waters up stream have been cutoff with pond and flood control structures to the point it takes above average rainfall for longer periods to get a prolonged high water period to replenish the lakes and rivers we have.

Hey Aggie Angler I was the one mentioning the dead zone and yes I do know it's caused by the high nutrient level caused by the high level of fertilizers, pesticides, cow/animal manure, people dumping all kinds of crud in the river, etc. That is kinda my point, if the bay is going to die then so be it, but mother nature is pretty resiliant and hopefully it can adapt. People are here to stay and although I do agree that we should all conserve, some fools just do not care. As I mentioned in an earlier post it only takes a few minutes without water to see how worthless everything is without it. The area I live in doesnt have too many lakes around it and the older wells are going dry, I'd rather see lakes built to capture the water than for us to pump the ground dry. I see lakes as a form of conservation, you see them as a lack of conservation, but other than that we kinda agree.
There are idiots around here that are pumping the their wells into ponds/tanks and our local water nazi board doesn't care because the ones doing it are super rich and get there rears kissed.

If lakes aren't the solution, what is? Conservation is not enough, there's just too many people here now and they aren't going to stop coming. Recycled sewer water?

Sometime in the distant future we will be converting sea water to drinking water here in Texas. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and many of the middle east countries have done it for years. Scary to think our future generations may never know what good ole cold well water tastes like.