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GBRA warns of extended drought, outlines multi-decade WaterSecure project
Summary
GBRA told Comal County commissioners that Canyon Reservoir and Edwards/Trinity spring flows are at multi‑year lows, current operations include mandatory curtailments and releases to meet downstream needs, and a regional WaterSecure project is proposed to add 100,000 acre‑feet of firm supplies by the early‑to‑mid‑2030s.
Daryl Nichols, general manager and CEO of the Guadalupe‑Blanco River Authority, told the Comal County Commissioners Court that the basin has experienced a severe, multi‑year drought and that GBRA is operating under drought triggers that limit environmental releases. “For water supply, we’re releasing about right now, I think we’re releasing about 60 CFS today, to meet downstream water supply needs,” Nichols said, explaining that GBRA is only releasing for contracted water supply and Spring Branch pass‑through flows while drought triggers are in effect.
Nichols said Canyon Reservoir is fully committed under existing permits (90,000 acre‑feet) and that local wholesale customers have mandatory curtailments tied to lake elevation (a 15% reduction at the stage‑4 trigger, greater reductions at lower elevations). He described WaterSecure — a regional plan that would develop roughly 100,000 acre‑feet of new firm supply using surface rights, brackish groundwater, aquifer storage and recovery, and off‑channel storage — but stressed it is a long‑lead, high‑cost project expected to deliver supply in the early‑to‑mid‑2030s and requiring substantial capital and rate changes.
