Posted: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:28 AM - 11,179 Readers
By: Asher Price
River authority says 80 pipes for domestic use are legal, but more than 5,500 lack contracts.
At least 5,500 lakeside homes pump water illegally from the Highland Lakes, the Lower Colorado River Authority estimates. Only about 80 homeowners have contracts.photo by Larry KolvoordNick Bailey has lived on the shores of Lake Austin since 1947, and his family has always had a pipe in the lake to pump out water to drink, bathe in and irrigate plants with. He pays for the chlorine and iodine to make the water potable. And when the river authority occasionally drops the lake level to clear out invasive plants or to allow homeowners to repair docks, it is he who stands in the muck to repair the intake pipe.
Now, with drought choking the lakes, the Lower Colorado River Authority, the nonprofit government utility that monitors pumping and sells water, wants people like Bailey to sign a contract and pay for the water they use. The LCRA estimates that at least 5,500 lakeside homes pump water illegally from the Highland Lakes. Only about 80 have a contract.
If all the current users sign contracts, LCRA can expect to bring in at least $690,000 a year, based on the current cost of water.
But the LCRA says water accounting and fairness are what's at issue, not money. It says it wants to set up contracts with these homeowners so it can accurately account for how much water is in the river system as it tries to balance municipal, commercial and industrial needs into the future. It's also a tool to stay in contact with water users to make sure they are conserving during the drought.
"In a time when we are planning for our children's and grandchildren's water supplies, it is important that all water use be accounted for," Karen Bondy, manager of river services for the LCRA, said in a statement. "Compliance also is important because it is only fair that all customers should pay for the water they use."
To press users to sign contracts and to identify those who do not, the LCRA said it will send out letters by the end of September to lakeside owners informing them of the rules and will train its septic tank inspectors to look for the domestic-use pipes.
The LCRA and other river authorities are especially concerned about the unmonitored use because drought and population growth are squeezing water supplies, experts say.
"One of the things everyone's concerned about is these folks not following drought-contingency standards," water lawyer Michael Booth said. "When rivers are flowing, it's pretty clear that's not a problem. But they're not, and the water would not be in that lake if it was not for the storage."
But persuading homeowners to contract for their water after years of essentially getting it for free could prove hard.
"There is no right of way, no deed restriction that says that I cannot pump water," Bailey said.
Marceline Lasater, a lawyer who has lived on Lake Austin for nearly 20 years, has a contract to pull out a half-acre-foot of water a year. But she said she should not have to pay for the water because she too believes she has water rights to the middle of the old river channel.
She opted to enter into a contract because, while serving on an advisory panel to the LCRA several years ago, she heard that the authority might take a closer look at who has contracts and who doesn't. She decided it would be cheaper to spend the roughly $100 per year to buy the lake water than to get into a legal skirmish with the river authority. Unauthorized pumping can lead to civil and criminal penalties, the LCRA says.
Booth said lakeside property owners could have an argument if they were pulling water from a flowing river. But since Lake Austin is basically an impoundment controlled by the LCRA, he said, the agency has the right to regulate lakeside pumping.
"These users are clearly taking LCRA water that (the river authority) stored," he said.
Contacting the LCRA when he put in a pump several years ago "seemed like the obvious thing to do," said Jonestown resident and contract-holder Larry Cohoon. He uses Lake Travis water to irrigate plants on his roughly three-quarter-acre lawn.
Last week, the LCRA sent notices to about 80 residents who currently have a water contract, reminding them that they are required to follow the LCRA's outdoor watering schedule. The schedule limits lawn watering to no more than twice per week.
Some said they have signed up because of a sense of responsibility.
"To properly calculate water usage, (LCRA) needs to know how many people are tapping the lake before selling it to someone else," said Larry Audette, who has a contract to buy 1.57 acre-feet each year for his Lake Travis house.
Bruce Wasinger, who lives on Lake Austin, said he decided to get a contract to make sure he had water even during drought.
"I wanted to make sure that if we got into drought situation that I had a supply good at least through (a repeat of) the drought of record," said Wasinger, who retired in 1999 from the LCRA, where he was a lawyer. He is now a lawyer with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.
Should the drought conditions persist and exceed the 1950s worst-ever drought of record, the river authority could curtail use by all its customers, even those with contracts for water during drought.
"I'd rather be cut off pro rata in a drought than be cut off 100 percent, which LCRA, since you're taking someone else's water, could do," Wasinger said.
