{"id":374798,"date":"2026-07-16T00:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374798\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T00:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T00:08:07","slug":"city-of-austin-considers-lowering-lake-austin-for-first-time-in-nearly-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374798\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Austin considers lowering Lake Austin for first time in nearly a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents requested the move to perform maintenance and repairs on shoreline property, as well as address hydrilla, an invasive aquatic plant.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The City of Austin is considering lowering Lake Austin by about 10 feet this fall in what would be the lake’s first drawdown since 2017.<\/p>\n

City staff told Austin’s Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee on Wednesday they hope to make a final decision by late summer, with a drawdown tentatively planned for October and November if the city reaches an agreement with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).<\/p>\n


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The proposed six-week drawdown was requested by shoreline stakeholders to allow for maintenance along the lake’s banks and to help combat hydrilla, an invasive aquatic plant that can clog waterways, block sunlight and harm aquatic ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Austin Water and Austin Watershed Protection officials said homeowners and businesses along the lake are eager to know whether the drawdown will move forward so they can begin securing permits for shoreline work.<\/p>\n

“The stakeholders are really interested to know sooner rather than later whether a drawdown will happen so they can get their permits lined up,” said Liz Johnston, an environmental officer with Austin Watershed Protection.<\/p>\n

The last time Lake Austin was lowered was in early 2017. Staff said persistent drought conditions have largely prevented another drawdown over the past several years.<\/p>\n

City officials also said they have met twice with a stakeholder group that includes homeowners, business owners and others affected by the proposal. During Wednesday’s meeting, District 10 Council Member Marc Duchen asked whether support for the drawdown remains strong.<\/p>\n

“I do believe there is,” Johnston responded.<\/p>\n

According to notes from a June stakeholder meeting obtained by KVUE, participants acknowledged there are long-term concerns about the effects of lowering the lake on hydrilla. However, the group concluded a drawdown is a better short-term option than relying heavily on chemical treatments along the shoreline.<\/p>\n

The city is also pursuing a long-term strategy to control hydrilla by stocking Lake Austin with sterile grass carp, which feed on the invasive vegetation year-round. Officials said more than 5,000 grass carp have been released into the lake over the past year as part of that effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents requested the move to perform maintenance and repairs on shoreline property, as well as address hydrilla, an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-374798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}