The SB2 Lower Colorado Regional Water Plan developed under this scope of work will be performed in a period of approximately 3.5 years. The final report to the Texas Water Development Board will be completed in January 2006. The scope of work tasks and subtasks presented below are prepared in accordance with the "Guidance for Preparation of Scope of Work for Regional Water Planning" issued by the Texas Water Development Board on 5 February 2002, and with the "Guidelines for Regional Water Plan Development ("Attachment B") issued by the TWDB on 11 February 2002. In addition, this scope of work includes items that are desired to be accomplished by the Lower Colorado Regional Water Planning Group that do not fit in the base budgets outlined by the TWDB and will constitute requests for additional funds from the $1.9 million fund remaining after the base allocations are made for this April 1, 2002 application deadline. Please note – underlined subtasks indicate that they are budgeted within the supplemental TWDB funding or the potentially remaining third-round TWDB funding.

Preparation of the scope of work has been in progress since before the previous planning effort was completed. Several different scope of work documents have been prepared, ranging from what all of the groups wanted if money were no object, to the most recent guidance of February 5, 2002. The scope of work is to include a detailed description of the tasks to be performed, identification of the responsible parties for task execution, a task schedule, and task and expense budgets.

This activity will be generally viewed as a relatively limited effort to update the area descriptions contained in the 2001 Regional Water Plans. A new requirement from the 77th Legislature is information on water pipelines and other facilities that are or could be used for water conveyance. Based on a request from the Regional Water Planning Groups (Planning Groups), this activity related to pipelines will be performed by a contractor to the TWDB and the results of this effort will be provided to the Planning Groups for inclusion in the 2007 Regional Water Plans.

The development of new population and water demand projections will be the most relevant feature of the first phase of this next round of planning. TWDB staff will prepare draft population and water demand projections for all the regions and their water user groups, in coordination with Planning Groups, and staff from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TCEQ), and Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). TWDB staff will request input from the regions and other local entities as the draft projections are prepared. New population projections, using a standard cohort-component procedure, will be developed using the 2000 Census and other pertinent sources. Projections will be developed first at the regional and county levels; then the projections will be allocated to municipal and county-other water user groups (WUGs). Development of new municipal water use estimates (gallons per capita daily, gpd-pc) will be based on data through 2000 from the TWDB Water Use Survey. Demand projections for all non-municipal water user groups will also be developed. TWDB has contracted with outside researchers who will use industry-specific input to develop new methodologies and the county-level demand projections for manufacturing, mining, and steam-electric. TWDB staff, with input from other state and federal agencies, will develop projections for irrigation and livestock. The regions may find it necessary to develop requests for changes to the population and water demand projections. A complete description of the methodology for developing population and water demand projections along with criteria for requesting revisions in population and water demand projections are included in Sections 4.2.3 and 4.2.4 of the TWDB’s Attachment B: Guidelines for Regional Water Plan Development.

1) Compare old and new projections on a county and WUG basis;

2) Identify new WUGs and confirm base populations and demands;

3) Develop realistic projections for rural WUG water conservation efforts;

4) Discuss potential impacts that changing the Region K projections will have on the Regional Water Plan;

5) Summarize comparison between old and new projections; and,

6) Distribute to Planning Group and communities.

This activity will focus primarily on updating the 2001 Regional Water Plan water supply and availability estimations. The Water Availability Modeling (WAM) System, initiated by Senate Bill 1 in 1997, has now been completed for all basins in Texas, except the Rio Grande. Accordingly, surface water models are now available for 22 of the 23 river basins in Texas. Model results are available on the Internet at TCEQ’s web site address: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/waterperm/wrpa/wambasin.html. As was the case for the first round of Regional Water Planning, the TWDB will use the TCEQ-approved Run 3 of the WAM System for the determination of surface water availability. The TWDB will provide services within available resources for surface water availability analysis, including firm yield estimates for existing reservoirs and proposed reservoirs, addressing the consensus environmental planning criteria, water diversion analysis for existing water rights, and evaluation of water availability for a new appropriation using WAM models provided by TCEQ. The TWDB will also provide technical assistance for WAM applications upon request as resources allow. Completed Groundwater Availability Models (GAM) shall be used to update groundwater supply and availability estimations unless more accurate site-specific information is available. Where GAM models have been completed, TWDB staff will work with the Planning Groups to prepare any necessary model runs to reflect region-specific availability policies as resources allow. Contractors are encouraged to check the status of GAM models for their regions at the following web site address: http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/gam/GAM_StatusMap.htm.

1) Review local plans and identify impacts on the Regional Water Plan (fill in what data is still needed after completion of the interim studies): new WUGs; plan revisions; evaluate alternative irrigation supplies; Williamson County (Region G) replacement flows; identify current groundwater use and users in the lower counties (a database will be constructed from existing available sources of well information for locations, casing & pump sizes, and type of use); analyses pursuant to consistency with protection of the State’s resources.

2) Distribute information to the Planning Group and communities.

3) Upon approval revise the Plan, which will include any new population and water demand projections from task 2.

A new requirement will be to show the present value of the total cost (capital plus operation and maintenance) during the planning period of each water management strategy (WMS). This will require showing costs in the year in which they are incurred and using a standardized discount rate to express that cost in terms of its present value in the base year. A more complete description of the methodology is included in Section 4.2.9 of the TWDB’s Attachment B: Guidelines for Regional Water Plan Development. Funding for new WMSs will be limited to new WUGs with needs that were brought into the regional planning process through changes in 31 TAC 357 or for other reasons, and WUGs that have experienced changed conditions requiring the evaluation of additional WMSs. Examples of changed conditions include: 1) Documented increases or decreases in water demand such that projected demands exceed the supplies available from previously adopted WMSs or are reduced so that previously recommended WMSs are no longer the best WMSs; 2) Increase or decrease in availability due to WAM or GAM model results such that supplies are more or less than demands and such that the magnitude of need has changed significantly; 3) All or part of a region that is experiencing a new drought of record; and, 4) Regionalization of two or more WUGs. The 77th Legislature added a requirement on desalination. In preparing the Regional Water Plans, the Planning Groups shall consider the implementation of a desalination program, if practicable. Region K’s task 4 also includes the development of Legislative recommendations on these issues.

1) Re-evaluate Region K’s surface water availability estimates using the updated TWDB WAM models.

2) Re-evaluate Region K’s groundwater availability estimates using the updated TWDB GAM models for the Carrizo, Gulf Coast, and Edwards (Balcones Segment) aquifers.

3) Surface water export from Region K (interbasin transfers to Regions G and L), including: utilizing the irrigation canal system in the lower counties for storage of flood flows; and evaluating the impact of these exports on the Regional Plan.

4) Groundwater export from Region K (interbasin transfers from selected Region K aquifers), including: reviewing existing information; developing the local GAM-compatible data that will be needed in order to identify the local impacts associated with the movement of groundwater from rural/agricultural users.

5) Evaluate Onion Creek recharge enhancement strategies. This is a "changed condition" WMS of H6 that has been expanded to include many types of recharge enhancements as well as on-channel & off-channel sites, hydrology, and water availability.

6) Evaluate the potential water supply from enhancing alluvium recharge with flood flows to add delayed flows to the Colorado River. A similar study was done for the Brazos River that this region can use as a reference/guide in developing this new WMS.

7) Evaluate the impact of the new Llano River Diversion WMS on the Plan.

8) Sustainability analyses – policy development for various scenarios including: meeting projected population increases at the expense of other entities and finding new water supplies; meeting projected population increases, but requiring decreased per capita water use; and, managing population growth to meet demands with existing supplies. This is a changed condition WMS because it addresses demand-side sustainability.

9) Advanced water conservation strategies.

10) Buy-out of the rice farmers second crop, which can be used eliminate the need for SAWS to develop Region K groundwater in the lower counties; or it can be used by LCRA to mitigate impacts to bays/estuaries. Will be analyzed as a water supply strategy.

Water quality impacts will be based on parameters important to the use of the water resource and comparing water quality conditions with the strategies in place to the current conditions using the best available data. Similar to third-party impacts of voluntary redistribution, the Regional Water Plan shall include a quantitative reporting of socioeconomic impacts on agricultural resources, including analysis of third-party gross business activity and employment impacts of moving water from rural and agricultural areas. Region K’s task 7 also includes the development of Legislative recommendations on these issues.

1) Incorporate water quality issues/studies into plan, such as: identifying areas of aquifers with high concentrations of contaminants that may need treatment; groundwater over-pumping contamination (exposing bad-water line); local model of the Gulf Coast aquifer with impacts of demands and saltwater intrusion.

2) Clarify/define the specific environmental impacts anticipated for the various new water management strategies.

The 77th Texas Legislature amended the Water Code to require water conservation and drought management measures in Regional Water Plans. The Planning Groups must consider conservation and drought management measures for each water user group with a need. To assist the Planning Groups, the TWDB will provide a guidebook that discusses different municipal water conservation practices and the anticipated water savings and cost of each. This information can be used by the Planning Groups to determine the use of water conservation as a WMS. The Planning Groups shall consider water conservation practices for each water user group beyond the minimum requirements resulting from implementation of plumbing fixture codes. If a Planning Group does not adopt a water conservation strategy for an identified need, it must document the reason. A more complete methodology is included in Section 4.2.7 of the TWDB’s Attachment B: Guidelines for Regional Water Plan Development. The Planning Group will include in its Regional Water Plan a model water conservation plan for use by holders of water rights as required by TCEQ and a model drought contingency plan for use by wholesale and retail public water suppliers and irrigation districts. The Regional Water Plan will also consolidate in this chapter the water conservation and drought management recommendations developed by the Planning Group. Region K’s task 6 also includes addressing wildlife impacts from irrigation water conservation in the lower three counties.

A chapter must be included describing how the Regional Water Plan is consistent with long-term protection of the State’s water resources, agricultural resources, and natural resources. Amendment of 31 TAC Chapter 357.14(C) defines this requirement as satisfying the following rules:

a) 31 TAC §358.3 relating to guidelines for state water planning,

b) 31 TAC §357.5 relating to guidelines for the development of Regional Water Plans,

c) 31 TAC §357.7 relating to Regional Water Plan development,

d) 31 TAC §357.8 relating to ecologically unique river and stream segments, and

e) 31 TAC §357.9 relating to unique sites for reservoir construction.

The 77th Texas Legislature clarified that the designation of unique stream segments solely means that a state agency or political subdivision of the state may not finance the actual construction of a reservoir in a designated stream segment of unique ecological value. It does not affect the analysis to be made by the Planning Groups. To recommend all or parts of streams segments of unique ecological value, the Planning Groups must develop a recommendation package that includes a physical description of the location, maps, photographs, and site characterization documented by supporting literature and data. The TPWD already has assembled much of the needed documentation. The Planning Group should consult the TPWD to determine what information is available and if TPWD could provide the necessary information within the timeframe, prior to submitting a cost estimate for this task. The recommendation of unique sites for reservoir construction requires descriptions of the sites, reasons for the unique designation, and expected beneficiaries of the water supply to be developed at the site.

The 77th Texas Legislature requires the Planning Groups to report to the TWDB how affected entities proposed to pay for the WMSs in the approved Regional Water Plans. The reports are due 1 June 2002, but this is an ongoing requirement that is being integrated into this and future rounds of regional water planning. The Planning Groups will need to update the information for existing water user groups with new or revised WMSs and survey all new water user groups with needs. There are two aspects to the requirement: 1) The Planning Groups are to report how the local governments, regional authorities, and other political subdivisions in the region propose to pay for their infrastructure projects; and 2) The Planning Groups shall describe policy recommendations regarding the appropriate role for the State in financing projects identified in the Regional Water Plans, giving particular attention to any proposed increases in the level of State funding.

This task is included to capture, for budgeting purposes, several efforts important to the eventual completion and adoption of the Regional Water Plans. Primarily, eligible expenses covered in this task include various eligible administrative expenses, travel expenses of Planning Group members, and public participation.

1) Publishing a biannual electronic newsletter.

2) Updating the TWDB regional website link.

3) Presenting highlights of the process/plan to five civic groups per year.

4) Administration of the inter-regional cooperation effort.

5) Providing support to the Planning Group for presentations.

6) Costs associated with the various public participation efforts.

7) Costs associated with production of the report (required drafts and final).