CTWC to LCRA: Buy the rice farmers' land

February 25, 2013, 7:20 pm by James Walker

The Lower Colorado River Authority should consider buying irrigation-intensive land from down-river rice farmers as a means of helping solve current and future water supply shortages in the river basin, the Central Texas Water Coalition said Monday.

Buying the farm land from the rice growers would be an affordable, sensible and water-saving action to meet the needs of LCRA’s firm water customers and free up billions of gallons of water a year, CTWC said in a news release.

CTWC’s proposal was not enthusiastically received by the LCRA.

"We welcome constructive dialogue about this important issue, but are hesitant to give attention to a proposal that could detract from the state’s and LCRA’s goal of creating new water supply,” LCRA spokeswoman Clara Tuma said.

The CTWC proposal likely will be one of the topics discussed at a Burnet County-sponsored water issues meeting Wednesday at the Burnet County courthouse.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

For more on this story, see Tuesday's Highlander.