LCRA cutting off water to rice farmers

[TexasTowelie]

2. Central Texas coalition urges buyout of rice farmers

Follow-up story from AAS:

A consortium of Central Texas businesses and communities has floated a novel solution to the tug of war over Colorado River water: Pay downriver rice farmers not to farm rice.

Members of the Central Texas Water Coalition are asking the Lower Colorado River Authority to pay rice farmers at least $100 million not to farm rice in perpetuity. They figure that’s cheaper than the cost of a proposed downriver reservoir, whose costs the LCRA estimates at $206 million.

The idea is only broadly conceived, said coalition president Jo Karr Tedder. “We’re trying hard not to get into a battle over every drop of water and where it’s going to go,” she said.

The payout, she said, could benefit rice farmers by next year — faster than the reservoir, which will not be built until 2017, at the earliest.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/central-texas-coalition-urges-buyout-of-rice-farme/nWf6J/ .