{"id":38378,"date":"2014-09-02T14:05:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T19:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38378"},"modified":"2014-09-03T11:11:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T16:11:29","slug":"as-drought-persists-cities-look-to-texas-lakes-to-answer-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/09\/02\/as-drought-persists-cities-look-to-texas-lakes-to-answer-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"As Drought Persists, Cities Look to Texas ‘Lakes’ to Answer Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Austin's<\/a>

Photo by Mose Buchele<\/p>

Austin's Decker Lake is used for electricity production and recreations. But it could be re-purposed for municipal water use.<\/p><\/div>\n

The funny thing about Walter E. Long Lake: most people don’t know it exists.<\/p>\n

The lake, tucked into a rural-feeling part of North East Austin is big, by Austin standards. It can hold more water than Austin’s two central city Lakes -Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake- combined. It was created to host a power plant, which it’s done for for nearly 50 years. That’s how it got its other name: Decker Lake.<\/p>\n

But Last week, Austin’s city council voted on a plan<\/a> to wean Austin off Decker Power Plant electricity, opting to shutter the plant to lower citywide emissions. If that happens, the lake could serve as Austin\u2019s a new city reservoir.<\/p>\n