Lake Travis 2024: Countdown To Zero

[CooterBrown 18012]

On 3/17/2024 at 9:27 AM, B00M said:

I hate my St Augustine so much

My St Augustine had been near death for two years. I finally said fuck it and overseeded it with Bermuda at the beginning of February.  I didn't prep the lawn at all.  It's already taken over and is a nice dark green with minimal bare spots.  I haven't watered it once and don't really plan to.  

Edited March 20 by CooterBrown

[B00M 6416]

24 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

My St Augustine had been near death for two years. I finally said fuck it and overseeded it with Bermuda at the beginning of February.  I didn't prep the lawn at all.  It's already taken over and is a nice dark green with minimal bare spots.  I haven't watered it once and don't really plan to.  

Holy shit, I assumed you had to go down to the dirt to do this

 

[GreenspointTexas 9602]

Most people west of I35 shouldnt have grass lawns to begin with. They arent natural in that part of the state. Quit trying to put a square peg in a round hole

[Anastasis 23469]

I have a mix of bermuda in the back, zoysia in the front from a resod, and a patch of SA from where I imagine some dumbass prior owner tried to put a strip of sod they bought at home depot in an area along a retaining wall that struggled. The zoysia is the best decision I ever made, it looks great. I want the SA dead and gone. I can live with the mix of bermuda and zoysia, but I fucking hate that SA.   

[Orange&White 5528]

2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I have a mix of bermuda in the back, zoysia in the front from a resod, and a patch of SA from where I imagine some dumbass prior owner tried to put a strip of sod they bought at home depot in an area along a retaining wall that struggled. The zoysia is the best decision I ever made, it looks great. I want the SA dead and gone. I can live with the mix of bermuda and zoysia, but I fucking hate that SA.   

I have a hybrid of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sinsemilla. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff

[Kennythetiger 9382]

16 hours ago, Deej said:

Pretty soon, there will be nowhere for Nicole to dump the bodies. 

If she starts renting pigs get the fuck out of there. 

[Jameslaw121 4448]

4 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

My St Augustine had been near death for two years. I finally said fuck it and overseeded it with Bermuda at the beginning of February.  I didn't prep the lawn at all.  It's already taken over and is a nice dark green with minimal bare spots.  I haven't watered it once and don't really plan to.  

Did you just scalp the lawn then seed? Did you seed multiple times? I've been considering this

[CooterBrown 18012]

47 minutes ago, Jameslaw121 said:

Did you just scalp the lawn then seed? Did you seed multiple times? I've been considering this

Nope.  Literally just used a fertilizer spreader to distribute the seed.  It was probably at least 3-5X as dense as recommended since my spreader is broken and is stuck at the highest setting.  I watered it in with the nozzle set on jet spray to push the seeds down. Dunno if that made a difference or not.  It seems to have had a decent success rate.  I may spread some seed this weekend just to make it more dense and hit some spots I missed. The St Augustine was on its last legs and I hope the Bermuda chokes it out over the summer once the heat kicks in.

[Redneck Mutha 7956]

As someone who has let his SA go to shit the past two years (no weed, no feed, very little water), hearing this bermuda overseed and overtaking the yard idea....

[PvilleStang 2906]

On 3/16/2024 at 11:44 AM, CHIEF said:

At full pool level, not over filled, I have seen depths of over 300 feet, on a high end depth finder, in the area right below The Oasis. I remember back in the 90's when someone lost a sailboat, and they didn't find it for about a decade. It's pitch black at the bottom.

CHIEF

Man, your depth finder must be REALLY off.  Below the Oasis, you MIGHT see 200 if you're lucky at full pool, but I would bet closer to 180 from my recollection.

 

CSB: did a night dive on the dam a decade and change ago, and with the survace elevation around 680', I shoved my arm with the depth gauge about 2 feet into the silt at the bottom to hit 170' at the deepest point on one of the "jail houses".  If you guys REALLY wanted the easiest way to increase capacity, dredge the river beds, and I bet you could get a good 10-15 feet of silt out of there, not to mention a few dead bodies.  Removing the peninsula / sometimes islands, you're going to be blasting away for ages to get minimal results.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

I started this thread a month ago and we have gone from 38% full to 37%. Doomed.

[troph 24798]

10 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I started this thread a month ago and we have gone from 38% full to 37%. Doomed.

Not sure where it lands by the end of the summer if not sizable rains in May, but it won’t be the end. We’ve got one more year before we are all turbo fucked. So hope for floods in May then October then next spring. We need a Noah’s Ark event, they happen, no doubt we just need it in the next 12 months or we are fucked 3 ways til Sunday and then really fucked on Sunday because Jesus hates Austin and it’s sinners.

Edited April 15 by troph

[jimmyjazz 45952]

I think we'll get a serious (if not catastrophic) rainbomb this fall.  La Nina is looking to be epic.

[Bevo&Pevo 5146]

11 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I started this thread a month ago and we have gone from 38% full to 37%. Doomed.

Better than 14.4% in Lake Falcon down in my back yard in Zapata.

Water Data For Texas

[miguelito 11266]

Shit, Medina Lake is 2.8% full.

Two point eight.

[miguelito 11266]

Of course if you're a pessimist that's only 97.2% empty.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

3 hours ago, troph said:

Not sure where it lands by the end of the summer if not sizable rains in May, but it won’t be the end. We’ve got one more year before we are all turbo fucked. So hope for floods in May then October then next spring. We need a Noah’s Ark event, they happen, no doubt we just need it in the next 12 months or we are fucked 3 ways til Sunday and then really fucked on Sunday because Jesus hates Austin and it’s sinners.

In this part of the world droughts end in floods. The lake will eventually be full again no matter what this summer or next brings. It’s just a matter of the prolonged pain until it happens. Sadly, most of the Austin population is completely oblivious to how this could play out in the very near future.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

2 hours ago, miguelito said:

Shit, Medina Lake is 2.8% full.

Two point eight.

The pictures are quite sad. I have to assume that very few people rely on the lake for their main source or water, right?

[PvilleStang 2906]

Would be a great time to be in the artificial turf industry.  The amount of water most of TC pisses away at irrigation is mind-bottling.  Hopefully the downstream reservoir comes online and is able to mitigate some of the pain, but those rice goons down stream can suck it!  The amount of irreversible damage to lawns, foundations, streets, sidewalks, trees, etc. is about to eclipse their precious rice crop losses exponentially.  

[troph 24798]

9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

In this part of the world droughts end in floods. The lake will eventually be full again no matter what this summer or next brings. It’s just a matter of the prolonged pain until it happens. Sadly, most of the Austin population is completely oblivious to how this could play out in the very near future.

I understand. I look at lake Travis every day, have since 2007, and boat on it close to 75-80 days a year.  I’m very familiar with the lake cycle. Our demands have wildly increased, so the cycle of drought and flood are being tested. Like I said we can make it one more year without a flood event but 2 more years and straws are exposed, record lows are shattered and the lake is going to need a biblical flood not just a routine central Texas flood - to fill. 

[texasdago 7573]

37 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

The amount of water most of TC pisses away at irrigation is mind-bottling.

Yup.   The amount of water wasted on pretty green St. Augustine in dry Austin is brutal.   My yard is mostly xeriscaped with maybe 10% of the front/back made up of St. Augustine... maybe 10%.  I shut off my irrigation in October and have yet to turn it on.  The grass is the least of my worries.  Love my water bills during the less hot months.  

[gofuckyourself 8239]

9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

The pictures are quite sad. I have to assume that very few people rely on the lake for their main source or water, right?

My dad used to take me to Medina so this caught my eye.

There are water customers who use it.

More here: https://www.expressnews.com/hill-country/article/medina-lake-reservoir-drought-low-levels-18695562.php

And apparently the San Antonio Water System is paying the Bexar-Medina water district millions of dollars for water it hasn't used since 2015.

Gotta love government and their prudent financial activities.

[CycleTex87 2970]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:58 AM, Kennythetiger said:

If she starts renting pigs get the fuck out of there. 

A man that rents a pig, he's hard to stop.

[Spaulding Smails 1552]

13 hours ago, miguelito said:

Shit, Medina Lake is 2.8% full.

Two point eight.

My parents lived on Lake Medina for 15+ years, and my aunt and uncle have lived on that lake for almost 30 years.  My dad got tired of his cove being dry and sold their place when the water level came back somewhat about a decade ago.  I spent damn near every summer weekend in college down there wakeboarding and hanging with friends.  Those are some core memories for sure.  

It's the oldest man made lake in Texas.  It's absolutely gorgeous when it has water.  I've seen blame cast on SAWS for over-drawing water and The Medina Irrigation Co for wasteful allocation.  Heck, I even heard that the original surveyors screwed up on the watershed calculation and overestimated the breadth of the Medina river when it was built in the early 1900s.  I'm sure the truth is somewhere in there.  Regardless, it's so sad.  Not sure it will ever come back.  

[Herbie Hancock 7347]

A man that rents a pig, he's hard to stop.

You don’t know that. For all you know it could be inviting somebody to rob us.

[Ghost of LL 15531]

2 hours ago, gofuckyourself said:

My dad used to take me to Medina so this caught my eye.

There are water customers who use it.

More here: https://www.expressnews.com/hill-country/article/medina-lake-reservoir-drought-low-levels-18695562.php

And apparently the San Antonio Water System is paying the Bexar-Medina water district millions of dollars for water it hasn't used since 2015.

Gotta love government and their prudent financial activities.

It is a prudent financial decision to lock down the capacity that a water utility is going to need at some point.

Take-or-pay contracts of that nature are pretty common, because that's the only way reservoirs get built.  A reservoir costs billions to build, and it's not going to be funded and built if you don't have guaranteed customers. 

SAWS doesn't really "pay for water that it's not using."  When it needs that water, it really needs that water.  So it pays for that water to be available when it needs it.  if it doesn't need it, ok.  But the water was available to SAWS and couldn't be used by anybody else.  So it really was used by SAWS.

[gofuckyourself 8239]

2 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

It is a prudent financial decision to lock down the capacity that a water utility is going to need at some point.

Take-or-pay contracts of that nature are pretty common, because that's the only way reservoirs get built.  A reservoir costs billions to build, and it's not going to be funded and built if you don't have guaranteed customers. 

SAWS doesn't really "pay for water that it's not using."  When it needs that water, it really needs that water.  So it pays for that water to be available when it needs it.  if it doesn't need it, ok.  But the water was available to SAWS and couldn't be used by anybody else.  So it really was used by SAWS.

Thanks for the additional information.

Whatever the arrangement, SAWS is unsatisfied with it and are suing to get out of the contract, which the article says they inherited.

[landman 559]

With Travis down, why doesn't LCRA do some excavation to add capacity for the future.  Seems like the prudent thing to do in case we ever do get enough rain to fill it back up.

[PvilleStang 2906]

On 3/13/2024 at 11:06 PM, TKthunder2 said:

I’ve never understood why they don’t try to dig up sometimes island and increase the capacity of the lake. When we get those once a decade type rainfall seasons which fills the lake past 100% and they just open the flood gates all the way it just seems so wasteful, when we know within 5 years we’ll be back to worrying about the water supply.

It seems like that is a relatively easy an obvious way to increase capacity especially while the lake is low, so I’m assuming their must be some other reason why it hasn’t been done.

 

5 minutes ago, landman said:

With Travis down, why doesn't LCRA do some excavation to add capacity for the future.  Seems like the prudent thing to do in case we ever do get enough rain to fill it back up.

Someone needs to go back to page one and reread.  The amount of work vs the result is not worth it.  And it's not the lack of storage space that's the problem, it's the lack of water and the incessant need for LCRA to generate Hydro.

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

Texas has 2 weather patterns Flood and Drought
We've been dry for several years now and the Colorado water shed has gotten jack shit during this time frame

[jimmyjazz 45952]

I for one support the idea of a deeper lake that never gets to the water level it might have otherwise achieved.  I bet all those marinas and waterfront homeowners would be thrilled with permanent rocks and random grass for their lakefront view & use.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

38 minutes ago, landman said:

With Travis down, why doesn't LCRA do some excavation to add capacity for the future.  Seems like the prudent thing to do in case we ever do get enough rain to fill it back up.

If you mean excavating most of Cedar Park, Leander and Lago Vista, that might help.  Otherwise not so much.

[TKthunder2 4991]

59 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I for one support the idea of a deeper lake that never gets to the water level it might have otherwise achieved.  I bet all those marinas and waterfront homeowners would be thrilled with permanent rocks and random grass for their lakefront view & use.

About 5 years ago when last flooded, they left the flood gates open for FOUR WEEKS. We absolutely could have used more capacity.

[Brisketexan 105139]

1 hour ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

Texas has 2 weather patterns Flood and Drought
We've been dry for several years now and the Colorado water shed has gotten jack shit during this time frame

"Texas is a land of perennial drought, broken by the occasional devastating flood." - State Meteorologist, National Weather Service in 1927

 

6 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

About 5 years ago when last flooded, they left the flood gates open for FOUR WEEKS. We absolutely could have used more capacity.

So, the total storage capacity of Lake Travis is just under two MILLION acre feet.  Excavation has varying costs -- can be as low as a few thousand an acre foot, to $20k per acre foot, and maybe more depending on topography.  Let's go with a conservative number like $10k per acre foot.  AND, you have to have someplace to dispose of all that removed earth/rocks (let's be clear, it's mostly rocks in Lake Travis, which is MUCH harder to excavate.

Let's say we wanted to add 10% to the LT capacity -- that's 200,000 a.f..  The excavation cost alone, at $10k a.f., would be $2 billion.  And that's before we've paid a penny to haul the rock away, much less paid for a place to haul it TO (200k a.f.....means that if LCRA bought 10,000 acres of land (a pretty big purchase), it would have to cover that land in spoil/rock TWENTY FEET HIGH.

Large-scale excavation of a reservoir -- large enough to make a difference -- just isn't a cost-effective venture.

[jimmyjazz 45952]

15 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

About 5 years ago when last flooded, they left the flood gates open for FOUR WEEKS. We absolutely could have used more capacity.

Well, it's a flood control lake.  LCRA will release water for levels above certain thresholds IF the downstream lakes can handle it.  That doesn't mean Travis is "overflowing" when the floodgates are open.  Regardless, more capacity (at whatever cost) would mean lower water levels for any specific event, which in a sense exacerbates the current issues of marina/dock access in low water environments.

[HOOKEM4 5037]

6 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

"Texas is a land of perennial drought, broken by the occasional devastating flood." - State Meteorologist, National Weather Service in 1927

 

So, the total storage capacity of Lake Travis is just under two MILLION acre feet.  Excavation has varying costs -- can be as low as a few thousand an acre foot, to $20k per acre foot, and maybe more depending on topography.  Let's go with a conservative number like $10k per acre foot.  AND, you have to have someplace to dispose of all that removed earth/rocks (let's be clear, it's mostly rocks in Lake Travis, which is MUCH harder to excavate.

Let's say we wanted to add 10% to the LT capacity -- that's 200,000 a.f..  The excavation cost alone, at $10k a.f., would be $2 billion.  And that's before we've paid a penny to haul the rock away, much less paid for a place to haul it TO (200k a.f.....means that if LCRA bought 10,000 acres of land (a pretty big purchase), it would have to cover that land in spoil/rock TWENTY FEET HIGH.

Large-scale excavation of a reservoir -- large enough to make a difference -- just isn't a cost-effective venture.

That's it. Turn Ranger loose and give them a year, they will do some damage. The real question is how do you pay for the haul off and where the hell do you put that much dirt? It will never happen.

[DixonHur 11304]

21 hours ago, miguelito said:

Shit, Medina Lake is 2.8% full.

Two point eight.

Well, that's one way to get rid of Zebra mussels.

[TKthunder2 4991]

Look I’m fine if the answer is it’s not cost effective BUT again we’re spending millions upon millions in water conservation, recovery, and reuse efforts that would be far less effective. The potential proposal of the desalination effort is also NOT cost effective but we keep reviewing that every decade or so.

[DixonHur 11304]

28 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

Look I’m fine if the answer is it’s not cost effective BUT again we’re spending millions upon millions in water conservation, recovery, and reuse efforts that would be far less effective. The potential proposal of the desalination effort is also NOT cost effective but we keep reviewing that every decade or so.

Trying to pump water around the state from desalination plants on the gulf coast seems like a fool's errand.

[atomheartbevo 89668]

Jail our neighbors who insist on watering year round.

[Deej 76791]

44 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

Look I’m fine if the answer is it’s not cost effective BUT again we’re spending millions upon millions in water conservation, recovery, and reuse efforts that would be far less effective. The potential proposal of the desalination effort is also NOT cost effective but we keep reviewing that every decade or so.

All fun and games until all your excavating equipment gets submerged in a sudden flooding event. 

[WBT 20572]

Lulz, do some of y'all really think lakes are made by digging them out?

[jimmyjazz 45952]

I'm pretty sure whatever the cost of excavating an acre-foot of topsoil is, it's 10X that much at the bottom of a lake.

[Handcruser 2805]

Lulz, do some of y'all really think lakes are made by digging them out?

Exactly. Just move the fucking dam and flood downstream. Would be cheaper.

[atomheartbevo 89668]

Nobody should be poking around the bottom of Lake Travis, and any barrels found on the bottom that appear to be full of concrete are just that - barrels with nothing but concrete in them, left over from the construction of Lake Travis's infrastructure.

[Cajun 11705]

Sheeeiiit, reading these percentage "full" levels of Travis and others on this thread keeps me from slitting my wrists over Canyon being down to an all-time low of 59%.  C'mon floods, do your thing!

I wanna see Guadalupe River houses floating off the beach in Port A damnit!

[Thetexashammer 1062]

Medina lake history. I absolutely love that part of Texas. We used to go out there riding the Three Sisters.

Edited April 16 by Thetexashammer

[Hagbard Celine 10864]

On 4/14/2024 at 11:20 PM, Larry T. Spider said:

In this part of the world droughts end in floods. The lake will eventually be full again no matter what this summer or next brings. It’s just a matter of the prolonged pain until it happens. Sadly, most of the Austin population is completely oblivious to how this could play out in the very near future.

95% of austinites require 2.3 seconds to realize the traffic light has turned green

only south florida surpasses austin driver stupidity

in other news, i can solve the water needs of the entire state for 100 years with 1 Billion dollars and the following technologies:

1. solar-driven Archimedes screws

2. downhill 1% grade aqueducts

[Hagbard Celine 10864]

9 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I for one support the idea of a deeper lake that never gets to the water level it might have otherwise achieved.  I bet all those marinas and waterfront homeowners would be thrilled with permanent rocks and random grass for their lakefront view & use.

every drainage basin east of the brazos is dumping fresh water in the gulf

capture that excess and move it to the colorado and medina systems at zero cost+ (after the 1-time charge for the infrastructure + maintenance which both together recede to Zero )

[MrBig 5398]

6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Jail our neighbors who insist on watering year round.

How about jailing people who create illegal dams that prevent the refilling of lakes? I’m sure there is a fuckton of this shit going on in private property all over the state to hoard water and we aren’t doing shit to stop it.