Fraser detailed his concerns in a letter to county judges in the Colorado River basin. He said the legislation is potentially harmful to the Highland Lakes because it would allow the LCRA board to increase the amount of water it sells. That's not the way the LCRA pitched this deal to the public. My fundamental and overriding goal in seeking changes to the legislation is to protect the water levels of the Highland Lakes in order to maintain the region's quality of life, economic vitality and property values. Up to 150,000 acre feet of water annually then would be pumped via pipeline to San Antonio, and some water would be released downstream to rice farmers.
Legislative approval is required before the deal can proceed.
Fraser said he would seek major changes to the bill, including adding a provision to protect water levels in the Highland Lakes by requiring 50 percent of the water from the new reservoirs to be reserved for use by Texas rice farmers or to increase lake levels. Fraser said he would also push revisions to the bill to limit to 150,000 acre feet annually the amount of water that the LCRA could sell to SAWS, require San Antonio to pay for the entire cost of the project, prohibit LCRA from pumping water directly from the Colorado River or releasing stored water above the Mansfield Dam, and to make the bill apply exclusively to San Antonio. My concern is that the contractual terms of the deal could change or the regional plans may be altered after the legislative approval is granted to the LCRA allowing the sale. One way to do that, Fraser said, would be to require the current terms of the proposed sale, and the components of the regional water plans, to be included in the actual legislation. If the terms change, the legislative authorization for the deal would become void.