A 7,000 gallon truck brings in water about four times a day to Spicewood Beach
It’s been in the works for some time, and today the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) announced that it’s reached an agreement to sell the Spicewood Beach water system along with 19 other retail water and wastewater systems to the Canadian company Corix Infrastructure.
Under an agreement between the LCRA and Corix, starting July 2nd until sometime in December 2013 when the sale is closed, Corix will operate the systems. In a release today, the LCRA notes that the company still “must apply to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for approval required for the sale, transfer or merger of a public utility as well as seek other regulatory approvals and consents for certain contract transfers.”Ā The LCRA also says that it will “retain the rate setting authority over the systems” until the sale is finished.
You can read more about how the LCRA ended up owning the Spicewood Beach water system in the first place (and why some residents have questioned their management of it ever since) in this earlier story.
Pati Jacobs on her cattle ranch outside of Bastrop, Texas
āFour months ago this was just bare dirt. There was nothing,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs says the drought has been “devastating.”
Cows roam at the 235-acre Bastrop Cattle Company ranch.
During the peak of the drought, the cows here grew starkly thin and had no grass to graze on.
“What most people donāt realize, this wasnāt a one-year drought,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs say the drought has likely put many ranchers out of business.
There is no way to overstate the severity of the drought. Last year Texas had its driest year on record, paired with some of the highest temperatures we’ve ever seen.Ā ButĀ even as the situation has improved forĀ some thanks to a relatively wet winter, otherĀ parts of the state are still in the worst stage of drought.
For ranchers like Pati Jacobs at the Bastrop Cattle Company ranch east of Austin, Texas, the toll of the drought was enormous. Pointing to a stock tank on her 235-acre ranch, she notes that just a few months ago it was completely dry. And the same goes for the grass her cattle like to graze on. “Four months ago this was just bare dirt,” she says. “There was nothing.”
A new web-based app allows you to see the Texas drought like never before.
Just how much damage has the record single-year drought done to Texas? For the first time, you can see an interactive map and severalĀ visualizationsĀ that show just how severe the drought has been. On our new interactive web app, ‘Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought,’ you can see the intensity of theĀ worst single-year droughtĀ in Texas’ history; learn more about theĀ hard choicesĀ the state has to make; see the droughtās progression and its impact on the state; explore the pros and cons of theĀ policy decisionsĀ that need to be made andĀ share your stories.
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