AUSTIN | Economic Development

[lonewolf]

shot in the dark here, and maybe a bit of a rant.

Lake Travis is the largest lake community in Texas, it's a great area that many people in Austin don't get out to enough. It is also a variable level lake, meaning it functions as a reservoir. Enabling lakes austin, lbj and marble falls to function as constant level lakes.

(This is where I wade out of my lane)
I am assuming that in order for LT to function as a constant level lake, DOWNSTREAM infrastructure improvements would need to be made? ie we would need the colorado river to function as a reservoir between austin and bastrop (which probably entails improvements to miller and longhorn damn to move more water)

Obv I know nothing about this. But I can only imagine the economy and wealth creation that would happen on lake travis were it 680-682' year round.

[shoreditch]

I think the present dams themselves have plenty of throughput, no? We see that often when flood gates are opened.

I don't know either, but my best guess is that at least some portion of the highland lakes system would continue to need to be variable and that that would need to be upstream of Travis. Lake LBJ is already a passthrough lake, so it cannot change water storage amounts without flooding communities, so my guess is Buchanan would need to be the more variable one, no? The whole point of the highland lakes is to store water upstream for civilian use throughout central texas for hydropower and potable water. We can't really store it downstream at this point; the jurisdictional issues in the relatively more densely populated communities downstream and east of Austin make it a nightmare.

Curious what others think. It's a great idea and I do wish Travis was constant.

[Novacek]

trying to keep travis constantly level at its high point would lose a lot more water to surface evaporation, especially during droughts.


More downstream storage can be done at a small scale, like the new off channel resevoir

https://www.lcra.org/water/water-sup...ing/new-water/

but more of that is needed to just keep up with demand/possible climate change. Hard to imagine we'd be able to do enough to justify losing LT's storage capacity.

[lonewolf]

lake buchanan is variable level. i believe it is just that and travis. i know that mansfield, miller and longhorn damn can all move water, I just think they would have to be able to move more. I think if we created a reservoir between austin and bastrop capable of offsetting the loss of lake travis as a variable water container then LT could be constant?

I understand this would be a yuuuuuge infrastructure project but I think the payoff is there.

And I was just thinking out loud because I've never heard anyone talk about it. IDK if it's even possible

[lonewolf]

Originally Posted by Novacek

trying to keep travis constantly level at its high point would lose a lot more water to surface evaporation, especially during droughts.


More downstream storage can be done at a small scale, like the new off channel reservoir

https://www.lcra.org/water/water-sup...ing/new-water/

but more of that is needed to just keep up with demand/possible climate change. Hard to imagine we'd be able to do enough to justify losing LT's storage capacity.

yeah the beauty of LT is how deep it is for its surface area. 62' on average! Buchanan not so much.

I would think a downstream reservoir of 500k acre feet would enable LT to go constant level.

[SproutingTowers]

The Arbuckle Reservoir is huge and can hold up to 40,000 acre-feet of water. LCRA says this more than lakes Marble Falls, Austin and Lady Bird combined. Austin should benefit from this investment to help continue to grow and prosper.

Unlike where I grew up in San Antonio where after 30 years they still rely on the Edwards Aquifer with some failed attempts to provide more water resources.

https://www.lcra.org/water/riverforourregion/

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by lonewolf

lake buchanan is variable level. i believe it is just that and travis. i know that mansfield, miller and longhorn damn can all move water, I just think they would have to be able to move more. I think if we created a reservoir between austin and bastrop capable of offsetting the loss of lake travis as a variable water container then LT could be constant?

I understand this would be a yuuuuuge infrastructure project but I think the payoff is there.

And I was just thinking out loud because I've never heard anyone talk about it. IDK if it's even possible

So besides the fact of giving up storage capacity when we need as much as we can get, I think the biggest issue is that it's a huge expense and not really any entity in a position to leverage any resulting benefit.

CoA won't do it, because they won't see the property value gains because it's outside city limits.

LCRA won't do it because they don't have a property tax.

You'd need some sort of Travis County public improvement district, and get all the existing landowners to sign on to a speculative investment with high up front costs.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by SproutingTowers

The Arbuckle Reservoir is huge and can hold up to 40,000 acre-feet of water. LCRA says this more than lakes Marble Falls, Austin and Lady Bird combined. Austin should benefit from this investment to help continue to grow and prosper.

Unlike where I grew up in San Antonio where after 30 years they still rely on the Edwards Aquifer with some failed attempts to provide more water resources.

https://www.lcra.org/water/riverforourregion/

Arbuckle is tiny compared to the existing reservoirs.

LB is 875k acre-feet, while Lake Travis is 1.1 Million!

https://hydromet.lcra.org/riverreport

You'd need 28 arbuckles to replace LT. The one was a $300M project, so you're talking about finding 8 billion dollars (rough ballbark)

(that's assuming for the moment that you operationally could support 28 off channel reservoirs, which you can't. It's designed to soak up flow that's currently lost due to inefficiencies in the managed release process).

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by freerover

So we should be all good as long as the Travis County vote goes YES tomorrow and expect things to go VERY fast after that.

I'm also really excited to see how pretty that area will look with a billion dollar upgrade. The Colorado River east of Longhorn dam is really under utilized. If you've been to Tillery Kitchen and Bar then you've seen how beautiful it can look.

Here is some info from the meeting packet for tomorrow.

This Thursday's Austin city council meeting has a briefing on the proposed project.

https://www.austintexas.gov/departme...00716-spec.htm

I've been assuming the Austin Green PID deal is dead, the deal for city annexation is dead, etc. but I guess we'll find out for sure then.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by Novacek

This Thursday's Austin city council meeting has a briefing on the proposed project.

https://www.austintexas.gov/departme...00716-spec.htm

I've been assuming the Austin Green PID deal is dead, the deal for city annexation is dead, etc. but I guess we'll find out for sure then.

I know Austin Green needed an electric substation to meet its power needs. No clue if Tesla will need the same.

[JoninATX]

No vote today?

[zrx299]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

No vote today?

I don't know enough about civic procedures, but here's what was posted today:

"Judge Biscoe announced that Item 13 would be considered in Executive Session pursuant to Gov’t. Code Ann. 551.071, Consultation with Attorney and Gov't. Code Ann 551.087, Economic Development Negotiations."

http://traviscountytx.iqm2.com/Citiz...g.aspx?ID=2025

[freerover]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

No vote today?

It's coming.

[LiveattheOasis]

Originally Posted by freerover

It's coming.

Coming today?

[freerover]

Originally Posted by LiveattheOasis

Coming today?

Yes.

[undergroundman]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

No vote today?

They're still taking public comments as I write this. The comments are just regurgitations of public comments of the previous public comment sessions with some of the same people.

These commissioners need to cut out this nonsense. There are enough public comments. There's a point that the commissioners need to be leaders and do what they were voted into office to do -- make hard wise decisions for the people who are not themselves wise enough to make.

[JoninATX]

Thanks, just wondering what was all going on.

[freerover]

Getting to the discussion and vote now.

[freerover]

Vote passes. Look for an announcement from Tesla in the next couple weeks.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by freerover

Vote passes. Look for an announcement from Tesla in the next couple weeks.

Great to hear! Well I guess that makes it official for Tesla coming to Austin.