Bay City Tribune

Measures to deal with current drought conditions - and how they will affect Matagorda County rice farmers - will be considered by the Lower Colorado River Authority board of directors at its regular meeting in Austin Wednesday.

The LCRA board and staff have discussed several options over the past months to respond to the drought, but the key issue to Matagorda County rice farmers is how much irrigation water the directors will make available for crops in 2010.

Before taking action Wednesday, the board was to have a water committee meeting Tuesday afternoon that included discussion of LCRA staff water-supply recommendations. In addition, the LCRA board also heard from rice farmers and firm-water customers - industries and municipalities - at a special called meeting Nov. 10.

How LCRA responds to current and projected drought conditions will come down to the board's determination Wednesday on the availability of stored interruptible water in lakes Buchanan and Travis to irrigation operations for 2010 in Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado counties.

The board does that every November - as part of the state-approved water management plan - to give rice farmers time to plan their next growing season.

Because of the drought's severity - and its comparison to the historic Texas drought of the 1950s - this year's decision on irrigation water supplies is especially crucial to rice farmers and for LCRA's firm-water customers, many of whom are critical of providing water to irrigation canals in the lower Colorado River basin.

The agenda for Wednesday's board meeting indicated the LCRA staff will recommend - among four separate drought-related measures - the board make interruptible water supplies available to rice farmers on a limited basis for the 2010 growing season.

The proposed recommendations call for the board to authorize first-crop contracts in 2010 - under the water management plan that is in place at that time - and "should conditions improve, staff will return to the board for consideration of water for the second crop."

At the Nov. 10 meeting, the LCRA staff indicated that "current estimates show that LCRA could provide at least 75 percent of what these customers may need, depending on water storage levels in the Highland Lakes early next year."

Going from the prospect earlier this year of getting no water for the 2010 rice crop to the staff proposal for Wednesday's meeting was "significant and greatly appreciated," Matagorda County rice farmer Haskell Simon noted at the water committee meeting Tuesday.

But reducing water for irrigation from the 2009 levels will still have a "serious impact on crop revenues and consequently the overall economy."

Simon also cautioned Tuesday that the potential economic loss of the second rice crop would be about $9 million.

He asked the board to work with irrigation customers in the lower counties to develop a balanced approach to the 2010 water-supply contracts.