{"id":394195,"date":"2026-08-01T00:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/394195\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:58:20","slug":"southwestern-travis-county-groundwater-conservation-district-decreases-drought-stage-lake-travis-westlake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/394195\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District decreases drought stage | Lake Travis &#8211; Westlake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Residents in the <a href=\"https:\/\/swtcgcd.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District<\/a>, or SWTCGCD, are no longer subject to mandatory reductions following a moderate drought declaration.<\/p>\n<p>Weeks of <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/central-austin\/government\/live-updates-2-deaths-confirmed-in-texas-floods-officials-warn-of-continued-storm-threat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">heavy rainfall<\/a> in Central Texas has reduced drought intensity in the SWTCGCD and district officials lowered the drought stage from severe to moderate drought effective July 30.<\/p>\n<p>However, SWTCGCD personnel are still recommending conservation measures.<\/p>\n<p>The overview<\/p>\n<p>The SWTCGCD board may declare a lower drought stage when a majority of the district has been at a lower intensity for four successive weeks.<\/p>\n<p>As of July 30, 46% of the SWTCGCD is under moderate drought conditions. (Courtesy Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District)<\/p>\n<p>Despite improved drought conditions, groundwater levels remain at historic lows throughout the district, according to a new release.<\/p>\n<p>The portion of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twdb.texas.gov\/groundwater\/aquifer\/majors\/trinity.asp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trinity Aquifer<\/a> managed by the SWTCCD is deep underground and does not recharge as quickly as surface water. Increased rainfall does not immediately improve groundwater levels.<\/p>\n<p>Groundwater pumping exceeds natural recharge rates, which limits aquifer recovery. The news release stated that conservation is one of the most effective ways to support aquifer recovery.<\/p>\n<p>How to help<\/p>\n<p>Current drought response measures entail a 10% voluntary reduction in groundwater use.<\/p>\n<p>According to the release, recommended water conservation measures include:<\/p>\n<p>Watering lawns no more than every five daysWatering only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.Keeping swimming pools, landscaping and decorative ponds covered when possible and refilling only to replace evaporative lossAvoiding washing outdoor surfaces unless necessary for health, safety or fire preventionWashing vehicles at commercial establishments only when necessary<\/p>\n<p>Looking back<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/lake-travis-westlake\/government\/extreme-drought-declared-for-southwestern-travis-county\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February<\/a>, SWTCGCD officials increased the district\u2019s drought stage to extreme drought and called for water curtailment from groundwater users.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/southwest-austin-dripping-springs\/real-estate\/central-texas-conservation-groups-encourage-rainwater-harvesting-amid-drought\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April<\/a>, the SWTCGCD joined several regional groundwater conservation districts in Dripping Springs to encourage rainwater harvesting as an alternative to reliance on groundwater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents in the Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District, or SWTCGCD, are no longer subject to mandatory reductions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,4257,9442,71894,71898,3218],"class_list":["post-394195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-groundwater","tag-lake-travis","tag-southwestern-travis-county-groundwater-conservation-district","tag-swtcgcd","tag-water-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394195","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=394195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}