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Drought Management


The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District has moved into 30% Curtailment Stage of groundwater pumping in the Jacobs Well Groundwater Management Zone and 20% Curtailment Stage district wide. In order to help ensure the health of the aquifer in the Jacobs Well Groundwater Management Zone and its residents, please protect your aquifer by limiting water use to indoor Covid-19 fighting uses, HTGCD Board and Staff.

New Drought Contingency Plan containing updated Rules 13 and 15 is available here.

The HTGCD uses Pedernales and Blanco River streamflow as District-wide drought indicators because these rivers are recharge features of our aquifers. Aquifer recharge occurs relatively slowly, and streamflow indicates the current and future health of the Trinity Aquifer in the District -- and therefore determines what stage of drought we must observe.

Data shows healthy streamflow in the Perdernales River is above 31.6 cubic feet per second (cfs), and 28.5 cfs in the Blanco River. The District recommends conservative use of water when streamflow is healthy.

When streamflow drops below a drought trigger -- shown in the table below as "Alarm," "Critical," and "Emergency" -- a daily counter begins. If the counter for both drought indicators reaches 30 days, the District Board will declare the appropriate drought stage.

To move out of a drought stage, both drought indicators must flow 60 consecutive days above the current drought trigger in order to give aquifers time to recharge. The declaration of the District coming out of drought stage will go into effect on the next Board Meeting.

Drought Stage
HTGCD Zone
Stage Start Date: September 2020
Discharge Flow Rate 30 Day Mean 60 Day Mean Alarm Trigger Critical Trigger Emergency Trigger
Region K
Pedernales Rv nr Johnson City, TX (08153500) as of 2021-05-08 8.78 110.44  31.6  10.2 2.23
Days with flow Above Stage Trigger 8 9 60+
Region L
Blanco Rv at Wimberley, TX (08171000) as of 2021-05-08 16.01 19.53  28.5  14.5 9.28
Days with flow Above Stage Trigger 0 60+ 60+
Days with flow Below Stage Trigger 4 0   0  
Streamflow is measured by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) gages at the Blanco River in Wimberley and the Pedernales River in Johnson City. These gage readings are represented by the graphs above. The yellow triangles represent the median flow over an 80-year period and the blue line represents streamflow in CFS. More information about the Blanco and Pedernales River can be found by clicking the USGS symbol to the left of the name in the table above.

Jacob's Well Groundwater Management Zone Drought Management

In order to protect groundwater supplies and Jacob's Well spring flow in the 39 square mile Jacobs's Well Groundwater Management Zone, District Rule 15 designates cutback triggers based on Jacob's Well spring flow. When flows from Jacob's Well averages six cfs or less during any 10-day period, The District Board declares appropriate drought stage.
Discharge Flow Rate 30 Day Mean 10 Day Mean Alarm Trigger Critical Trigger Emergency Trigger
Jacob's Well Groundwater Management Zone
Jacobs Well Spg nr Wimberley, TX (08170990) as of 2021-05-08 1.35 6.11 6 5 3
Days with flow Below Stage Trigger 5 4 3
Drought Stage
Jacob's Well Management Zone
Stage Start Date: November 2020

HTGCD Drought Stage History