Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer declares Stage 4 exceptional drought

Exceptional drought declared in central Texas

For the first time in its 36-year history, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District is declaring a stage four exceptional drought.

AUSTIN, Texas - In August, FOX 7 stopped by Barton Springs when inflow measurements were being taken ahead of an anticipated move into Stage IV Exceptional Drought.

At the time, the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District ultimately avoided a move into Stage IV.

Barton Springs is one of two indicators the district uses to gauge the Edwards Aquifer. The other indicator is the Lovelady Monitor Well.

"Lovelady is a little bit more muted in its response to rain events, whereas you might think of Barton Springs as being a little more flashy," said Tim Loftus, general manager at BSEACD. "It responds quickly to rain events and drops maybe a little bit more rapidly."

BSEACD declared Stage IV Exceptional Drought on Thursday, Dec. 14, after Lovelady dropped below the district's threshold for Stage IV for a 10-day span.

Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer update

Officials with the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District anticipate declaring a Stage 4 exceptional drought, an unprecedented move expected to have wide impacts across the area.

"The news is quite dismaying," said Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. "The Barton Springs segment is a much smaller pool of groundwater than the San Antonio segment. Cyclical droughts coupled with the rapid growth in that area point to a real need to conserve water and, perhaps consider restricting population growth to what local water resources can support."

"These droughts can persist over years. In the summer, of course, the heat is more obvious. The wilting plants and the brown grass are more obvious," said Loftus. "If the October rains did anything, they helped to green up the grass a little bit. So now it doesn't appear that there is a problem, but the aquifer is quite a bit beneath that root zone."

Data from the National Weather Service shows 2023 rain accumulation totals for the Austin area are around 25 inches so far. The normal accumulation is around 34 inches.

"We’ve been in this drought for 18 months," said Loftus. "We're down about a third of what we might normally get, and the aquifers are a little slower to respond to those sorts of climatic changes than, say, the rivers and the streams that we can see above ground."

The move to Stage IV will affect around 60,000 people across about 150 district permittees ranging from municipal-run systems like Buda and Kyle to individual well owners.

Austin weather: Rain unlikely to curb drought

Central Texas is gearing up for a deluge of rain on Thursday, Oct. 25. It's a welcome sight for many of us.

"This is clearly an unprecedented event. We're seeing similarly unprecedented events out west in the Colorado River Basin and other places," said Loftus. "My message would be that conservation needs to be a way of life regardless of whether we're in drought or not."

The City of Austin, which is serviced by the Highland Lakes, is still in Stage 2 Drought as of August.