Water's Scarce in Central Texas

Texas Monthly:

Central Texas lakes are at their lowest levels in more than 60 years, and Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan, the reservoirs northwest of Austin that supply water to the region, now stand at just 33 percent full. These lower levels have significantly reduced customer traffic and forced many lakeside business owners to make difficult decisions.
The closing of Carlos’n Charlie’s was the latest and most visible business impact of the drought. In the past, thousands of patrons would arrive by boat and car to watch the restaurant’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show and listen to live music. But the boat docks have been unusable for more than three years.
“We hung in there for the first bad year, the second bad year, and now the third bad year,” said Pete Clark, co-owner of Carlos’n Charlie’s. “We knew that if we hung on for a fourth, we would create a hole we couldn’t dig out of.”...
The Lower Colorado River Authority is the state-created organization that controls the water in Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis, as well as a 600-mile stretch from San Saba to the Gulf Coast. It is the L.C.R.A.’s duty to balance the needs of both those upstream in the Austin area, where the population around the lakes has boomed, and those at end of the line in Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado counties, where rice production drives the local economies.
State water laws give the downstream users first priority and two years ago, with Texas struggling through its driest year ever, the L.C.R.A. released roughly 120 billion gallons of water to rice farmers. That summer, very little rain fell to replenish the lakes while Central Texas experienced record-breaking streaks of 100-degree temperatures. By the end of the year, Lakes Travis and Buchanan had about half as much water as they had at the beginning of the year.
The L.C.R.A. took emergency measures in 2012 and 2013 to cut off the water supply to most downstream farmers, but according to Mr. Clark, by then the damage was done.

Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis are at about 1/3 of full pool volume.  Climate change plus irrigation plus population growth plus industrial growth equals trouble in the burgeoning desert.  Since 1900, we've seen this run-up of population growth against the water cycle so many times, I don't understand why we keep repeating it.  Anyway, the days of Texas growth are running up against the limits of natural resources. Don't believe the hype.