The short answer is that we don't make any decisions on flood control releases based on forecasted rainfall. The water has to be on the ground. When we're operating those gates, we are observing the upstream U.S.G.S. streamflow gages, but there's a whole lot of un-gaged area.

There's a whole lot of rain that could be happening on top of the lake, or around the lake, or downstream of those gaged areas. The only way we can truly tell what the inflows are coming in is to look at the change in elevation over time. We do a calculated inflow as we’re working through these flood releases.

So, although we're watching rainfall and radars, and gages, we only make decisions based on the water that's on the ground. Now, if there's no rain at Lake Granbury, but there's rain above Granbury, and even above Possum Kingdom Lake, and we know there's a one-gate, two-gate, three-gate release at PK, that water is on the ground, so we can make decisions on releases.

So we do not make any decisions based on forecasted rainfall, in a nutshell.

We are aware that there is an artificial intelligence video circulating on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok claiming Lake Granbury was No. 7 on the list of most polluted. This is completely false. We reviewed all ten lakes on that list, and the claims are incorrect. It stated there were warning signs about bacteria and algae, but there are no such warnings because there is no cause for them.

The video is clearly AI-generated and factually wrong. The Brazos River Authority participates in the Texas Clean Rivers Program, providing regular real-time testing reported to the TCEQ and EPA. We do not have the pollution problem described in the video.

You can view the Texas Clean Rivers Program section on our website at brazos.org. Click on "Environmental" and then the "Texas Clean Rivers Program" button to see all reported data.

JP: If you’re not aware of what golden algae is, it a naturally occurring algae that is in the majority of our water system, is that correct?

TM: It’s a single celled organism it’s pretty much throughout the state of Texas it just based on the water quality. Some of the far East Texas waters don’t have the right PH to allow it to produce toxicity, that is the one unique thing that separates it from, say our normal green algae we’d see in our reservoirs. At times, when conditions are right it can generate a toxin. That toxin is not known to be harmful to humans or mammals and birds, but it is toxic to other fish. It can be toxic to freshwater mussels, aquatic insects, we’re not real sure of the effect on of them with that toxin. So it is just a naturally occurring thing that we just have throughout the state of Texas that we deal with an be aware of. We do sampling in partnership with Parks and Wildlife. Starting in the fall through the spring, it has been seen. It’s not impossible to have a bloom or toxic event in the summer, but monitoring the data over the last 20 years, it definitely seems to be much more of a fall to winter, early spring occurrence for us so we collect samples every month from Possum Kingdom and Granbury with are our reservoirs that have been most impacted by this. We send them to Texas Parks and Wildlife they do cell counts and toxicity analysis. But honestly, it’s also a very elusive little critter and predicting exactly when it’s going to bloom, the conditions that are going to happen and then even more importantly when it’s going to become toxic has eluded pretty much the best minds around the globe. Golden algae is not just unique to Texas, it’s throughout a good portion of the United States. There are populations in Israel, Australia, even up in the Norway and Sweden areas have had impacts from golden algae and trying to find a single set of positive factors has been elusive for us. Every time we think we start to figure out the situations and scenarios setting up, it will do something different and surprise us.

JP: So basically, just a real quick summary of it, golden algae is always there, sometimes it begins to bloom and when it blooms it will be toxic to fish and mussels.

TM: Not necessarily. It can bloom which means it rapidly increases the size of its population. It can bloom and not be toxic. You might see a tea color to your water, but if you’re not seeing fish dying, there are blooms in East Texas, but because they have a much more acidic pH in their water in East Texas, that seems to prohibit the production of the toxin. They might have a bloom or a relatively clear water body suddenly become kind of a nice tea colored lake, but it’s not toxic. We have seen that from time to time in the Basin. We’ll have high cell counts, but no evidence of toxicity.

JP: So, I think our question was what are we doing to stop this from happening?

TM: Theres not a thing you can do, it is part of the natural food chain in our reservoirs and lakes. People have, including the BRA, have spent a lot of money trying to figure out if there’s ways to control it and it again, until you can figure out the exact mechanisms that are triggering the transition to toxicity, there’s not much you can do to develop it. In most of the proposed solutions would have much more severe impacts on our existing fisheries and biota in the reservoir. So, there is not anything currently that we’re aware of that can be done to prevent a toxic bloom or control it.

JP: And there are people throughout the world that are researching this that have not yet found a means of doing that, so we are just hoping that that doesn’t happen. That we don’t have blooms and toxicity and fish kills like we had a number of times in the past 20 years. But there’s really not way of predicting that.

TM: I would also caution when people try to eradicate native species, we’re not aware of the Pandora’s box of repercussions that could unfold from doing that. Trying to control something that’s there naturally and does serve a purpose in the ecosystem could have equally detrimental results.

JP: Well, I hope we answered that question. It was our only question this time. I appreciate your time and answering it for us.

Possum Kingdom is about an inch below elevation 999, the operational full level. So it’s effectively full. The BRA has different options to release water once we get full. The likelihood of having to release water is starting to increase.

We have three ways to release water from the Morris Sheppard Dam.

The controlled outlet conduit (COC) we use to supply customers downstream for water supply. We can use that at the front end of flood events and at the tail end of flood events to pass water. It only releases about 2,500-3,000 cubic feet of water per second.

(We can release) through the low flow gates. There are three at Possum Kingdom and they release about 50 cfs to 350 cfs. Using them in combination with the COC, we can typically release about 3,000 cfs.

When we do have flood events happen, we do have to open the beartrap gates. We have to ensure the lake level does not rise above the top of the gate, because that would create a situation to where we couldn’t open a gate.

So we will be looking at the rainfall, the inflows into the reservoir to determine how to release water out of Possum Kingdom. So the likelihood is we are probably going to have to increase the release. That all depends on the amount of rainfall, where that falls, the duration and the magnitude. The watershed above Possum Kingdom is very large, so rainfall even in the Abilene area can impact those inflows and cause us to have to release water. So, I’m sorry I don’t have more definitive plans, but right now we don’t have any definitive plans to open a gate at Possum Kingdom but we’ll be watching the weather.

What I saw this morning when I came in and looked at rainfall totals, we saw 1 to 2 inches across the basin with pockets of three inches. That was last night. And we kind of saw some intermittent rainfall activity since mid-September. You know, each time we get one of those rains, we're going to see some improvement. It's going to help put moisture back into the soil. But it's been so dry for so long that the soil is just like a sponge right now. But, as we move into the fall and our vegetation starts going dormant, it's going to help with that. And especially as we move into the winter and these rains like we're getting, it's just going to help fill in those holes, fill in those top tanks, and get the soil moisture back to where eventually, when we start getting these storms, we're going to start seeing runoff.

The Brazos River Authority has only approved hunting on our three reservoirs, Possum Kingdom Lake, Lake Granbury, and Lake Limestone, and that's just for duck hunting season. So, we don't allow hunting of any other type on our reservoirs, and we are actually not in charge of hunting restrictions or laws on the river. That actually falls under Texas Parks and Wildlife. And I understand that during this last legislative session, there were some changes made to the laws that do restrict hunting on the river. So, I'm afraid we can't really answer your questions about hunting on the river. We would love for you to talk to Texas Parks and Wildlife and find out what those hunting restrictions are because they are very different from what they were prior to this legislative session.

So Belhouse is a project that we've developed that's going to connect the larger Belton Lake to the smaller Stillhouse Hollow Lake. The main components are an offshore intake with an onshore pump station, a pipeline connecting the lakes, and then an outfall at Stillhouse Hollow.

You know, this project is really important because it's going to help improve reliability and resiliency of the regional water supply, improve drought preparedness and prepare the region for continued growth and development. We've completed our preliminary engineering phase and we're currently in contract development for final design.

And this phase is expected to last 2 to 3 years, and it's going to set us up for a really easy transition into construction. We hope to have the entire project completed no later than 2030.

It's really important to understand that our customers in and around Bell County who get their water from Stillhouse are really going to benefit the most from this project. But ultimately, the entire region and all of our customers are going to benefit.

It's really going to allow the BRA to better manage our water resources throughout the basin. So it's important to note, too, that this pipeline is only expected to run when the water supply is needed. It's not designed to run continuously, and the BRA will not enter into any new raw water contracts solely because of it. Much of the time, natural rainfall and drainage into Stillhouse Hollow will be sufficient to meet water needs without pumping water from Belton.

The answer is yes on that because they're held on two different days. If you're not chosen, because we do usually have a really large turnout at Lake Granbury, you can go up to Possum Kingdom Lake and attempt the drawing there. In the past, they've not awarded all of their permits. So that might be a good option for those of you that are interested in the drawings at Granbury and PK.

What you described is a riparian right. So, if you own land adjacent to the river, you have a riparian right to divert water for domestic and livestock. So, as it relates to your lawn and garden, you can do that. And, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and Brazos Watermaster, are the ones that establish and monitor water rights diversions throughout the basin from Possum Kingdom downward. Those riparian rights are senior and superior to all appropriative rights. So that's one thing that a lot of folks don't know. But you know, Molly Moeller, the Watermaster, and TCEQ, have a lot of information about that. If you are a domestic and livestock user, there are some constraints around that. And definitely, reach out to TCEQ to let them know that you own land, and you want to use the water for domestic and livestock. Because it's important for the Watermaster to know to protect those riparian rights. And, and so that's an important thing to do. That's all established in the Texas Administrative Code related domestic and livestock use, but it does include all other river basins.

My understanding is, you don't need to get permission from the Watermaster, it's always a good idea to let the Watermaster know, so that they don't mistake you for somebody else. And, so they'll know that to protect the water that you want to divert for, for those domestic and livestock uses. That's for personal use only. Not for commercial purposes.

So that question, kind of relates to what we call interruptible water. Interruptible water is a one-year water contract. We typically establish the amount that the BRA Board authorizes in the fall. We went to the BRA Board in November, and the recommendation was to not make interruptible water available for 2023 because of our drought situation. And we recognize that a lot of folks do rely on that interruptible water for irrigation. At the November Board meeting, we did let the Board know that if we had an increase in storage - typically above that Stage 1 as a system, so, you know, 80% or so - if we recover to that extent, we would come back to the Board and recommend, reevaluation of interruptible water and make it available or at least have that authorization to make it available. So, you know, depending on what we see over the next couple of months, if we see enough improvement, then that's something that we will look to go to the Board and make it available if conditions allow. We’re at 75% total full now. We would go to the Board potentially in May, or, we have board meetings every other month. After May, it’s July. I think we would potentially go to one of those meetings if we receive the rain and inflows and increased storages.

No, the lake is low as a result of the dry weather we’ve experienced over the last year. Fortunately, we’ve had some nice rain so far this year, and the lake level has risen about two feet since mid-January. We’re hoping that the lake fills back up soon. The gate replacement work on the dam will begin this spring and will not require any drawdown or lowering of the lake level.

Yes, you can, but again if there are things you find that may be an artifact, no you cannot. You can’t take that out of the lakebed. An artifact would be any sort of fossil, ancient material, things like arrowheads, any sort of historical artifact that technically is the property of the state of Texas.

Our first waterfowl hunt blind drawing at Possum Kingdom Lake at 8 a.m. August 20 at our Possum Kingdom Office. We’ll hold a similar drawing at Lake Granbury at 8 a.m. August 26 at our Lake Granbury office. And then last but not least at Lake Limestone at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 26 at the Lake Limestone Office also.

Lake Waco is a major reservoir and BRA was the state sponsor for Lake Waco. We worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the reservoir. The permit, the state water right, for the water that’s stored in Lake Waco belongs solely to the city of Waco. It’s not part of our system. All the use is essentially local here in McLennan County.

To duck hunt on our reservoirs, we have a lottery-type drawing every year toward the end of August.

We require hunters to come in and bring their current or the upcoming year's hunting license with the migratory waterfowl stamp. And with the lottery system we have, you come in and sign in your name. We check your license and make sure it's valid for the coming year. And then it's pretty much a first-come, first-serve. We'll put everybody's name on a list; we'll put numbers in a bucket. We'll have from 50 to 80 people sometimes at Granbury. We'll pull your number; we've looked on the list. And say, number 27 belongs to Mr. John Smith. Mr. Smith comes back, and he gets his first choice of one of the 15 locations that we have marked on the lake to hunt. That's how we do that, and that's how the other two lakes do it as well. It's a lottery-type system.

If you have a true emergency, it's a boat accident, or someone's in trouble, you do call 9-1-1. The sheriff's office at Hood County and Palo Pinto County. At Lake Limestone, you go through Robertson or Freestone County - they are the main dispatch agencies for the lake rangers. If you have a minor emergency, you need a tow or are broken down or something like that, you can call the non-emergency numbers. If it's during the day during business hours, you can call the lake office, and we'll refer you to a service that helps tow boats or repairs boats on the lake if you're broken down.

For a true emergency, it is 9-1-1, and dispatch will send the appropriate people to the problem.

We have a joint funding agreement with USGS, U.S. Geological Survey, to maintain a streamflow network that monitors not only streamflow but lake levels throughout the basin.

We have, and we maintain, what's called the Brazos Basin Now site. You can find that at www.BrazosBasinNOW.org. What you will see there, are a lot of things that go into that site. Obviously, the USGS data. You can find different base maps. If you want to look at aerial photography. It's a good source of information if you want to know what river flows are in parts of the basin; you can go to this site and get a lot of good information and hopefully, can get what you need. If you can't, you can always ask us.

We do have a Brazos River Authority Speakers Bureau. We have speakers from just about any topic that you're interested in – environmental, water supply, water planning, flood planning. Any topic in the water category you're looking for.

In the past, we've supplied speakers for groups all the way from 1st and 2nd grade. We'll have our lake rangers come out and talk about water safety and life jackets. We've also supplied speakers for local chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, garden clubs --- really any area that you're interested in for drought conditions; we'd be happy to send someone out. All you have to do is send us a request by email at information@brazos.org, and we'll be happy to get back with you to set something up.

Quite candidly, the answer there is it's too early to understand all the recreational opportunities.

We are certainly committed to making recreational opportunities available as we get into the preliminary design for the reservoir in the next year to two years, we'll better understand what those opportunities look like. But again, from our perspective, we want to make recreational opportunities available on the new Allens Creek Reservoir.

Unfortunately, we do have spills that occasionally occur, and sometimes we have boats that sink within some of the marina facilities. The owner of the vessel of which that spill emanates is responsible for the cleanup and the costs associated thereto. I believe that's found in the (Texas) Water Code, specifically chapters 7 and chapters 26. In addition, we update our rules and regulations on occasion, and our new draft rules and regulations that we’re bringing forward to the public to comment on, we’re going to require commercial on water facilities to have equipment and/or supplies to respond to and effectively contain a spill. That’s one of the things that’s a change that will be coming in our new (draft) rules and regulations. I do think it will be beneficial for those commercial on water facilities to consider adding a provision within their agreements with the owners that they lease slips to that kind of further define those responsibilities. Although it is defined within statutes and rules and regs, I think it would be good as a reminder to those folks that lease slips that they are ultimately responsible.

It’s best to reach out to a private company or a private contractor on that if you’re thinking of doing some sort of bulkheading and/or riprap. While the BRA does permit bulkheads and riprap and things like that at reservoirs, we do not on the river. We don’t have the jurisdiction to do that. However, it’s possible depending on what folks are wanting to do, after you reach out to a private contractor, you may end up needing to work with the US Army Corps of Engineers and get some sort of 404 permit through the US Army Corps of Engineers. Again, it just depends on exactly what you’re doing. But you won’t need a permit from the BRA to do any type of erosion control on the river itself because, again, we don’t have that jurisdiction. There is a program through the USDA National Resource Conservation Service that will help with native streamside vegetation to reduce erosion. It may take a little longer than an engineering option, but it is an option.

I’m going to share my screen to hopefully give folks a better understanding. The National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center, they are the ones responsible with issuing forecast along the river and downstream of our reservoirs. We coordinate closely with them as far as our releases are concerned. But it's their responsibility to model the river, if you will. Then the National Weather Service, the forecast office, issue the actual warnings. You may see different flood warnings come across your cell phone or your TV if you’re sitting at home. So, what does action stage mean? I have this shared. This is the Brazos River gage near Hempstead. This is just below the Bryan-College Station area. You can see this is taken from earlier this week. You’ll see these different color codes. So, action stage for Hempstead is at 25 feet. Then you get into minor, moderate, and major flood categories at higher flows. Essentially, action stage is the stage when the river level reaches rising stream where the National Weather Service or a partner (or the public) needs to take some type of action to prepare for possible significant hydrologic activity. So, it’s kind of a warning like, ‘Hey, we are moving toward a more significant flood event.’ The appropriate action is to usually find a weather forecast office. There are three weather forecast offices in the Brazos (River basin.) For our part of the basin, from PK downstream we have the Fort Worth office; toward the Bryan-College Station area downstream it’s the Houston-Galveston office. They're the ones that actually define what action stage means. But a lot of times it can be the same as the forecast issues stage. Once these river levels are reached, they start issuing forecasts that project out what the river levels will look like in the next several days.

The BRA does not allow hunting on its properties. We did in the past have a lease that has since expired up at Possum Kingdom reservoir.

The state does allow hunting within the riverbed. So, down below our dams, you’ll see duck hunters and deer hunters. One of the things I would caution, though, if you take that opportunity is to be careful and be cognizant of Parks and Wildlife and the rules and regulations associated with that. Specifically, with the regard to the potential to trespass on private property. [Hunting] is allowable within the riverbeds, but folks need to be careful because you may have a duck hunter set up duck hunting, and someone else may be coming up the riverbed trying to hunt deer. I’d always say use caution whenever you do that and be aware of your surroundings.

At Lake Limestone, the only hunting we allow is duck hunting, and it’s through a draw process. We have pre-selected blind locations across the reservoir, and there’s an application and draw process that takes place in late spring and summertime to award those blind locations. If you’re interested in duck hunting at Lake Limestone, you can find more information about that by contacting our lake office out there at Lake Limestone.

IWRP is an acronym for Integrative Water Resource Plan. It’s something that we’ve been looking at pursuing at least for the last couple of years. We’ve switched our focus a little bit. We’re ultimately going to develop one for the entire basin. But, because of the growth we’ve been seeing over the last couple of years, particularly along the I-35 corridor down through McLennan County, Bell County, Williamson County, and that part of the basin, we’re going to initially focus that effort in that area, and that area is the Little River watershed portion of our basin. The rivers over there, the Leon, the Lampasas and the San Gabriel and all of those Brazos. We’re focusing on that area because of the growth. One of the questions a lot of people ask all the time about water is, well the foundation of our reservoir system is what has supplied water for all these years, so why can’t we go build more reservoirs? It seems like that would be an easy and good thing to do. But there are a number of reasons that’s not practical in today’s times. One, because a lot of the good reservoir locations are taken. There are significant property rights issues you get into. There’s the matter of rainfall and inflow. As you go further west in our state, there’s just not enough rainfall and runoff to support more reservoirs. That leaves us at looking at other water supply alternatives for the future beyond just traditional reservoir development. That’s where the integrative planning comes into effect.

Meeting our water needs going forward is going to take a combination of a number of other types of projects, such as aquifer storage and recovery, where we’re potentially storing surface water in the ground for further use. It’s going to take greater conservation efforts. It’s going to take greater and smarter use of return flows that are coming from our wastewater plants. All of those things are kind of interconnective. So, if you tweak one knob, it’s going to have an effect somewhere else. That’s what we’re going to be looking at with this integrative water resource planning effort. Looking at basically a strategic roadmap for what we need to do to develop additional water supplies for future growth first in that Little River watershed, and then we’ll be rolling it out to the entire basin here in the next couple of years.

This is a huge initiative that’s going to involve, we use the word stakeholders, but a lot of customers and experts to make sure when we have the deliverable from our team and consultant that we know how we’re going to spend money and how we’re going to invest in the future of the state of Texas water supply.

Definitely, we here at BRA would like to have a call. Let us know what y’all are seeing. We need to notify the Texas Parks and Wildlife. If any member of the public wants to call them too, they’re also a good resource. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a specific Kills and Spills Team, that if dead fish are reported, they go out there and try to see if they can determine what is the cause. If you have any idea of what species it is, they like to hear that when they make the report. Yes, us and Parks and Wildlife are who would like to get those reports from the public. It is important for us to know. If you’re along the river or along one of the reservoirs and you see fishing dying, please let us know so we can work with Parks and Wildlife to see what’s going on.

Recreational vehicles are welcome; we don’t have hookups for them, though. So, if you have your own generator, you can bring your own generator. Of course, those can be noisy, so we’d be happy if you had a quieter one, as would the people camping around you. You don’t need reservations. Unlike the state parks, we don’t take reservations. It’s first-come, first-served. You’re welcome to stay up to 10 days in the same spot. We don’t have pump-out facilities; but, there are recreational areas around all three of the lakes that would provide that for you. They are available; they just don’t have specific hookups and, of course, no reservations, first-come, first-served.

The Board has directed us to do a comprehensive review and revisit of our Rules and Regs for the lakes. And, it’s important to know those are applied to all three of our lakes, so Possum Kingdom, Granbury and Limestone. Staff is in the process internally of working through those. As you would imagine, it’s a pretty big undertaking. Our plan, just as we revised them back in 2014, which is the last time we had a major revision, is to provide ample opportunity for public comment on those proposed changes. When we first take them to the Board, and this is important to remember, when you first see them on the Board agenda, that will not be for final adoption. What we will do is we will present staff’s proposed changes to the Board and then take input from the Board on any additional changes they have. The Board will then direct staff to put those changes out for public comment for a period of 30 days, and that period will take place between Board meetings. So, if we are ready in November, which I don’t want to promise that we are, just watch the agenda. If we are ready to take the proposed changes to the Board in November, the Board will then hear the proposed changes, make any suggestions, and then direct us to put them out for public comment for 30 days in between the November and January Board meetings. If, for some reason, we’re not able to get them together until January, then kind of the same process: We would first take them to the Board in January, the Board would consider those revisions and tell us to put them out for public comment in between the January and April Board meetings. I just emphasize again, the first time you see those proposed changes on the Board agenda is not for them to be finally adopted. It’s for them to be out for public comment. And as always, we allow public comment at all of our Board meetings so folks can come to Board meetings and provide comments in person if that’s something you all want to do.

Most of our interactions out on the lake are informational. I would say 80% of our contacts are just to ensure the public is enjoying our lakes and lands safely. The Brazos River Authority does not collect any of the revenues from fines associated with tickets that have to be issued. So, if you do receive a ticket generally, we’ll have the contact number that’s listed on the ticket. And generally, you’ll need to contact the local Justice of the Peace or the county judge to find out how you need to proceed and follow up with that ticket.

It’s a pretty simple answer, but it can get pretty complicated. First of all, when we need water that’s permitted to the Brazos River Authority out of Lake Whitney, we can call the Corps of Engineers and ask that water be released. But the majority of the water released out of the reservoir is managed through the reservoir owner, the US Army Corps of Engineers. They may release to generate electrical power through the generators there through the turbines in the dam, or they may do it in response to a flood or water they have stored because of flooding to create more flood storage. Lake Whitney is not a Brazos River Authority-owned reservoir, so we only have limited control of the release of that water when we request the small amount of water be released.

Our three reservoirs are water supply reservoirs. We have no flood control storage.

Once the reservoirs are full, and it rains on already full reservoirs, we must release water and pass those inflows, in real-time, downstream by opening gates. We have to mimic nature because if we don’t, the water level will rise to a certain degree that could impact the integrity of the dams. We have to release what comes in. We have protocols and procedures and constraints related to that.

As far as the upper basin, the last three months were really dictated by the rainfall that occurred on top of PK and on top of Granbury and upstream. We had a lot of water that was sourced from upstream, and that’s why we had prolonged releases in some instances. When it’s wet, we have to release what comes in to manage the reservoir level and keep it at safe levels to avoid having issues with the dam.

As it relates to water supply, when we get to dryer conditions like we are now, we still have residual inflows, and we’re releasing more. At Possum Kingdom, we’re releasing more than our FERC minimum flow requirements associated with our water rights. Right now, it’s 75 cfs, but we’re actually releasing about 130 cfs. We have to look at downstream customer demands as far as the timing and when and how much we release water during dry conditions.

As it relates to maintaining a 200 cfs release rate from Memorial Day, the end of May, through Labor Day, we just can’t do that. If we’re in drought conditions, we can’t release water just to release water because that would severely impact the amount of (water supply) storage we have in our reservoirs, and it would jeopardize the amount of water we could provide to our customers.

Once we get into dryer conditions, we have to conserve and impound the water and then look downstream as far as to what our demands are in supplying (water) to our customers.

It’s a balancing act.

For information on how releases are made from BRA dams, go here.

The sandbars will continue to grow and move as water comes into the reservoirs. The sandbars are always changing. That on top of the fact it’s very, very, very expensive to dredge. Also, in most cases, to dredge requires approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers and getting that approval is not easy. Sometimes there are environmental concerns toward what you may be dredging or where you may be putting the dredge -- or the fish habitat or species habitat that you’re moving or destroying, as some would see it, when you move those sandbars. It becomes a really hard act to manage and really expensive to manage those sandbars.

Our reservoir offices are the part of our organization that installs those no-wake buoys. They are put into locations based on a certain set of criteria. If you have an area you think needs a no-wake buoy, you can reach out to our lake offices, and they would assess that. No-wake buoys are regulatory, and for a buoy location to be an enforceable violation, it has to meet our criteria.

For more on no-wake buoys, go here.

For those of you that don’t know, on some of our reservoirs, we permit duck blinds for duck hunting in the winter.

Basically, we have the duck blind locations based on criteria, also, that considers the safety of the public and nearby homes and infrastructure. We have as many as we feel comfortable permitting that allows us to maintain some safe duck hunting. That’s kind of how we deal with the duck blinds. You can reach out to our local reservoirs or get more information on our webpage .

We do not allow feral hog hunting on BRA proprieties. However, feral hogs do cause us problems because they always want to get behind our dams and do damage. So, we feel the pain of many landowners and farmers having to deal with feral hogs.

For information on what you can do about feral hogs, go here.

General maintenance does not require a permit. However, any changes that result in a change to the footprint of the dock will require a permit. Feel free to reach out to our reservoir operations with questions about modifying a dock or making any changes.

Going into yesterday morning (June 8), we received some very heavy rainfall on top of an already swollen river upstream of Possum Kingdom Lake. We were receiving 18,000-19,000 cubic feet per second of inflows prior to the rain event, and we had two gates open. Our operational full level at Possum Kingdom is elevation 999. The top of the gates is elevation 1,000. Our emergency spillway is elevation 1,000.

We were hopeful we could maintain a two-gate release and not have to open a third gate which increases the release rate to around 27,000 cfs, and we know that impacts portions of Parker County. But inflows continued to rise, including about 1.8 inches to 3 inches of rain right on top of the reservoir. The lake level continued to rise to above 999.50, and if we would not have opened a third gate, the lake level would have risen further and would have overtopped the gates and presented a dam safety issue. That’s why we had to make the tough decision to open gates at Possum Kingdom Lake and particularly that third gate. We don’t take (these gate openings) lightly. We look at streamflow. We look at the rainfall amounts. We coordinate very closely with the West Gulf River Forecast Center that issues the forecasts.

We don’t make decisions on forecasts. We make decisions on lake level rises and the calculated inflows into the reservoirs. We’re taking a change in reservoir storage over time and calculating inflows, and if those inflows rise above 30,000 cfs to 35,000 cfs, that triggers that need for that third gate.

This goes back to how lucky the Brazos River basin is to have Lake Whitney. Lake Whitney is a huge component of the flood control decisions and infrastructure that allows folks to be safe downstream of the dams. Our releases from Possum Kingdom Lake will reach Lake Granbury and then will travel to Lake Whitney. The US Army Corps of Engineers will then make releases out of Lake Whitney while watching the downstream gages and making decisions on evacuating the flood control storage while making sure there is no flooding downstream. (Effectively, the releases from Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury will have no effect on the current river levels at Richmond and Rosharon.)

At each of our three reservoirs, we have what’s called a downstream call list. You can reach out to be included on those call lists. I will warn you; you will get called potentially at all hours of the day and night. For each reservoir, we have specific intervals or criteria that trigger a callout. You can get a phone call, an email, a text or all three detailing what is happening, like the reservoir release rate, the timing, and the potential impacts downstream. You can find that form here.

Absolutely, Board meetings are always open to the public. We will be back in the Central Office in Waco having in-person meetings for the July 26 Board of Directors meeting. That puts our next Brown Bag virtual meeting on Aug. 5.

Hopefully, the rain subsides, and we can get in there and mow soon. We hope to have it open by the end of the week for sure.

One of the things we have wanted to do and are willing to do with regard to downstream landowner concerns on the Navasota River downstream of Lake Limestone is to provide education (about streamflow and downstream releases). We have offered to, and continue to be willing to meet with any landowner or group of landowners to help explain the operations of Lake Limestone and why (downstream releases) are not the cause, as well as why it does not make flooding worse downstream of the reservoir then it would be without the reservoir being there in the first place. (We’d also like to explain) why changes to the operations would not actually be solutions to the flooding problems below the Navasota River. Independent of (education), we have chosen to push that issue through the regional flood planning process because that is the venue that was created by the legislature through the passage of Senate Bill 8 last session to study and look at localized flooding and develop mitigation solutions for localized flooding. It is specifically designed to look at issues like flooding on the lower Navasota and determine where the flooding is coming from, how it’s happening, what’s causing it, and what things could be done to mitigate that. The even bigger benefit is solutions identified in the state, and regional flood planning process can be eligible for state funding to pay to mitigate flooding in the future. So that’s the reason we continue to go that route, and we will continue to champion that issue through the Lower Brazos Regional Flood Planning Group.

The Turkey Peak Reservoir is not a BRA-sponsored project. The Palo Pinto County Municipal Water District No. 1. is the owner, or sponsor, of the project. The district has provided a website with good information: http://www.turkeypeakreservoir.com. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2021. (updated 4.8.2021)

The BRA recently began an initiative to evaluate all BRA-owned properties from the southern end of the basin to north of Possum Kingdom Lake. This multi-year approach is aimed at making sure the BRA gets the full use of the properties and that they benefit our initiatives. The goal of the Property Master Plan is not to find ways to divest the properties but to prioritize and make sure the properties that we own are used to the best benefit of the BRA mission. Property management committee meetings will be held and posted here. For specific questions, email Blake Kettler. (updated 4.8.2021)

The hydroelectric facility at the Morris Sheppard Dam on Possum Kingdom Lake was designed to generate 24 megawatts of electricity. The facility was constructed and went into operation in the early 1940s. After 70 years, it was taken off-line in 2007 due to safety concerns with the plant’s penstocks and electrical malfunctions. After an extensive study to determine the economic feasibility of restoring the facility, it was discovered it wouldn’t be economical. At this time, the BRA is not seeking an opportunity to restore the facility. (updated 4.8.2021)

During the last legislative session, due to delays in the project, the legislature passed a bill that required our partner in the project, the city of Houston, to sell us their interest in the project. The price that was put on that was the amount they had in the project to date. Houston opposed that legislation, and once it was effective, the city sued the BRA and the state of Texas. That action has provided some delay to the beginning of the permitting process. The lawsuit could take a few years. However, the BRA is exploring options with our project partner to potentially at least begin the federal permitting required for that reservoir. The permitting process is expected to take five to seven years, and construction will take three to four years. Read more about the proposed reservoir here. (updated 4.8.2021)

The BRA was successful in having a provision included in the last Water Resources Development Act at the federal level that requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite a reallocation study.

The BRA is currently navigating the administrative process with the Corps of Engineers to get the project started. We’re hoping within the next year the reallocation study begins. (updated 4.8.2021)

As part of the BRA’s System Operation Permit, there is a memorandum of understanding with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department related to dedication of water to the Texas Water Trust. One aspect regarding eflows (environmental flows) includes the BRA updating our System Operation Permit to include instream flow use as a use type before we can release water for environmental flows. The BRA continues to work with the Texas Parks and Wildlife to outline how water can be used for the benefit of environmental flows in the context of the system operations permit and the water management plan. (updated 4.8.2021)

The BRA does not release in anticipation of rainfall. Weather forecasts are just not precise enough to know when the rain is going to occur, where it’s going to occur and in what magnitude. If water was released in advance of a rainfall event, we could potentially make downstream river conditions more severe downstream and/or make flooding worse. On the flip side, if we release that water and it doesn’t rain, that’s water supply that’s potentially impacted. Also, the BRA has a PK-Granbury balancing protocol wherein we release water from PK downstream to balance impacts between PK and Granbury from a recreational standpoint. As we move into dryer conditions, you’ll see increases in the release rate from PK to manage the drawdown of those two reservoirs as a system. (updated 4.8.2021)

Restrooms were closed at all BRA Parks last March due to our Covid-19 restrictions to protect our staff from potential exposure to the virus. Instead, we provided Port-O-Johns that were replaced weekly.

The Centers for Disease Control have recently come out with new safety criteria regarding the transmission of Covid-19 that the BRA is considering. We hope to have an answer for when the restrooms will be reopened soon. We will make an announcement on our social media pages when they are reopened. (updated 4.8.2021)