LCRA to Buy Tens of Thousands of Acres from Alcoa, Venture into Groundwater?

The Lower Colorado River Authority appears poised to greatly expand and diversify its water supply by entering into an agreement to explore purchasing land and other assets at  Alcoa aluminum company's Rockdale, Texas plant. The deal involves the acquisition by LCRA of  about 34 000 acres of property, surface and groundwater rights, common plant and equipment assets, and Alcoa's power contracts. 

The plant is located mostly within Milam County but also stretches into Lee, Bastrop and Williamson counties. According to LCRA, the acquisition would include "a significant amount of surface water rights and sits above a prolific groundwater aquifer." The Alcoa property is expected to add up to 45,000 acre-feet per year to LCRA's water supply.

  

In a brilliant act of strategery, LCRA's Board also approved a deposit on about 4200 acres of water-rich land around the aluminum-smelting plant. These properties, located in Wharton and Colorado counties, will be taken off the market for up to a year while the LCRA considers its purchase option. LCRA plans to build a pair of off-channel reservoirs on the Wharton and Colorado parcels to capture excess flows in the Colorado River, which will eventually be used to supply downstream rice farmers with water not coming from the Highland Lakes.

According to an article in equities.com, the LCRA currently relies exclusively on the Colorado River basin for supply, and the purchase would take the agency down two new avenues to get water, one by storing water off the river channel and another by relying on a property with groundwater and surface water rights.