After 23 days of flooding, the Lower Colorado River Authority has finally closed the last floodgate on Mansfield Dam on Lake Travis.
With the lake now at 683 feet above mean sea level, 18 feet down from the recent highs, and yesterday’s rains having no significant effect on the water table, they’ve decided it’s safe to end the emergency dumping. All LCRA-run sections of the lake system have now re-opened, but those bits run by the city of Austin – Lake Austin, Town Lake, and the river below Longhorn Dam – are still closed.
The city had said that they were waiting until after the last floodgate closed before re-opening the waterway. With levels still high, and water still flowing through the hydroelectric plant at Mansfield Dam, they haven’t issued the all-clear yet. Austin Fire Department said they’d hold off on any decision until Friday.
“We appreciate that there’s lots of people that want to get back into the water, and that there’s businesses that are losing business every day the lake is closed,” said AFD pubic information officer Michelle DeCrane, “but we’re sure there’s no one who would put profit ahead of lives.”
This article appears in July 13 • 2007.
