Recent rains have helped the drought situation in Brown County and have brought the level of Lake Brownwood up, giving local officials breathing room on finding an alternative source of water for Brown County.
According to Brown County Water Improvement District’s General Manager Dennis Spinks, a recently completed volumetric survey of Lake Brownwood shows that the lake has a capacity of holding 131,000 acre feet of water, which is very similar to a study performed in 1997, which showed a capacity of 133,000 acre feet. This volumetric survey is important due to the fact that the Drought Contingency Plan is triggered by the lake’s levels as the water diminishes during a drought.
“This is good news for Lake Brownwood,” said Spinks.
Currently, the lake is at a level determined to be 10.5 feet below spillway level (1425 ft msl), which means Brown County is in Stage 3 of the Drought Contingency Plan. This guides officials to have residents and businesses conserve water, limiting outside watering to one day per week. With the news of this volumetric study being essentially unchanged, Spinks stated that the Drought Contingency Plan will remain virtually unchanged after the BCWID board reviewed the study earlier this week.
“Essentially, there were no changes except that the Drought Contingency Plan had been based on a volumetric study of a 1997 survey, which determines trigger points at certain levels at Lake Brownwood,” explained Spinks. “There were a few minor changes in wording made.”
At a level of 10.5 feet below spillway, Lake Brownwood is 53.6% of capacity, which means that there is a 3-year supply of water currently in Lake Brownwood, according to Spinks.
“It’s not a desperate situation now, but we still need a plan of action for an alternate source of water for Brown County,” explained Spinks. “We know there will be rainfall and runoff, but whether it will fill up Lake Brownwood, no one knows. Historically, that lake has always been a productive water source. It has a large water shed that gives some great runoff, if rain is in the right location. We still need to be concerned and consider alternative sources.”
Spinks explained that in 2011, Lake Brownwood had reached a level of 16 feet below spillway and since then, the lake had risen 5 feet in 2012 and has been up and down in levels to present due to the drought and limited rainfall.
Weather forecasts, which aren’t always accurate according to Spinks, state that an El Nino pattern is forming and is expected to give the area a normal or better than normal chance of rainfall this summer and possibly through the fall.
“It’s (the supply of water) still an issue over summer and fall, depending on how strong of an El Nino forms. Changes in weather patterns we have had over the past three years are expected and we should have a better chance of rain than in the past,” said Spinks.
Another bit of good news given during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of the BCWID board, was that the modeling study of Lake Brownwood being completed by Castleberry and Associates is approximately 75% complete. This study will tell officials what it will take to complete a pipeline project that could carry treated wastewater back to Lake Brownwood rather than sending it downstream. By knowing the how the current quality of water discharged at the City of Brownwood’s wastewater treatment plant would affect Lake Brownwood, officials will learn what methods need to be added to the plant to bring the water to the standards required to discharge that water into the lake.
“Although the study is not completed, so far the levels of total suspended solids and BOD (a factor quantifying organic matter) meet the requirements so possibly Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) won’t require many changes at the water treatment plant,” said Spinks. “By no means is it finished (the modeling study), but in two weeks we’ll know more of what changes are needed, then it gets down to the economics of the cost of what it takes to treat the water (discharged from the treatment plant).”
The modeling study should be completed in two weeks, which will allow a chance for the BCWID and the Brownwood City Council to meet in a special meeting before the matter is taken up again at the July board meeting of BCWID. A report will be given at this meeting regarding the analysis.
