Lower Colorado River Authority

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lower Colorado River Authority or LCRA is a nonprofit public utility that was formed in 1934 by the Texas legislature. Its main concerns are conservation, electricity, water, and community services.

This includes providing electricity and water supplies, managing floods, owning and operating water and wastewater utilities, providing public recreation areas and supporting community and economic development.

The LCRA currently operates six hydroelectric dams along the Colorado River in the Central Texas area:

• Buchanan Dam- creates Lake Buchanan
• Inks Dam- creates Inks Lake
• Wirtz Dam- creates Lake LBJ which is used as a cooling pond for the Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant
• Starcke Dam- creates Lake Marble Falls
• Mansfield Dam- creates Lake Travis
• Tom Miller Dam- creates Lake Austin

The LCRA operates other electrical generating facilities and reservoirs in the Colorado River basin, including:

• Fayette County Reservoir - cools the Fayette Power Project (co-owned by Austin Energy and LCRA)
• Lake Bastrop - cools the Sim Gideon Power Plant and the Lost Pines Power Project 1 (owned and operated by GenTex Power Corporation, a wholly owned affiliate of LCRA)

The LCRA also purchases electricity generated by wind power projects in West Texas.

LCRA distributes electricity to 43 wholesale customers via a network of over 3,700 miles of transmission lines.

[edit] External links

• Lower Colorado River Authority web site

• Water IQ (water conservation) web site

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