LAKE TRAVIS, Texas — Sometimes-islands on Lake Travis have been all-the-time islands.
Many lakes and waterways in Central Texas are drying up and seeing extremely low water levels, including Lake Travis.
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These low water levels are impacting local economies and businesses.
Lake Travis is usually a hot spot for boaters and tourists this time of year, but with low lake levels, it’s not quite the destination it used to be.
Austin Edwards owns Austin’s Boat Tours on Lake Travis. He says Lake Travis today looks nothing like it once did a few years ago, but his business happens to be located on the south side of the lake, facing Stern’s Island – one of the deepest parts of the lake.
“We’ll never lose water until Lake Travis is completely empty. Completely empty!” he said.
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Other businesses aren’t so lucky.
“There are problems with other companies in other marinas; they’re having to be pushed out to the channel, so that is impacting their businesses and making it difficult to even run a marina that is in shallow water.”
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The Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce says one industry specifically is getting hit hard.
“Those would be restaurants, Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Karen Schultz said. “Restaurants that have to depend on the lake, and tourism and the people; the boaters coming off the lake into the restaurant.”
Although the water isn’t really doing harm to his business directly, Edwards says talk of low lake levels is.
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“There are rumors that Lake Travis is closed. Lake Travis is not closed, the ramps are closed for the public,” he said. “They probably will be officially closed, in my own opinion, in the next couple weeks, so they’ll all be closed for the public and you’ll only have private access, or you can use a marina like ours.”
While Lake Travis lake levels are not at a historic low, The Central Texas Water Coalition says the inflows are.
“We are dangerous. We’re in a very vulnerable situation, said executive director for the Central Texas Water Coalition Shannon Hamilton. “What is historically low are inflows – the amount of water coming into the Lake is much lower than about 20% of what we received during the last drought on record, which was about 2014.”
The Central Texas Water Coalition says levels this dangerously low are scary, and solely depending on mother nature is not the answer.
“Pray for rain, prepare for drought,” Hamilton said. “We should never need to plan for a hurricane or a flood to save us.”
The Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce says despite the low lake levels, the area continues to grow and is thriving.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
