The area’s drought status has much improved after an influx of rainfall causing the Brazos River Authority to downgrade the drought status from a four to a one for Lake Proctor.
Rainfall in the Little River watershed has prompted the Brazos River Authority to downgrade the drought status designation for Lake Proctor from Stage 4 Pro Rate Curtailment to Stage 1 – Drought Watch.
The downgrade of the drought designation allows those receiving water supply from Lake Proctor to move from a mandatory 30% reduction to a voluntary 5% reduction in water use that would have occurred in the absence of any drought contingency measures.
As of June 3, Lake Proctor has risen to an elevation of 1,160 feet mean sea level (ft-msl) or two feet below the reservoir’s full pool elevation of 1,162 ft-msl due to runoff generated from the rainfall event that occurred during the last week of May. The lake is now 1.8 feet above the Stage 1 – Drought Watch trigger of 1,158.2 ft-msl.
The state requires the BRA to plan and implement a Drought Contingency Plan. This plan outlines steps to extend the supply and availability of water during times of drought. The Drought Contingency Plan includes four stages. Each stage is marked by trigger points measured by a lake level or water storage capacity. The Drought Contingency Plan also includes triggers associated with how wet or dry it is, according to the Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index. The complete Drought Contingency Plan may be found at www.Brazos.org/ Drought Though drought designations have been relaxed, the Brazos River Authority encourages everyone to continue to use water wisely and employ water conservation measures at all times.
The drought restriction reduction comes before more anticipated rainfall this week throughout the state as the season’s first tropical disturbance is set to hit the gulf coast on Wednesday. An active hurricane season is expected which may bring additional rainfall to the area over the next few months.