Two buyers can both say they are buying Central Texas waterfront and end up with very different things. Lake Travis is a water supply reservoir. Lake LBJ is not. LCRA operates them under different rules, and those rules decide whether your dock floats in August of a dry year.
Why does Lake Travis rise and fall so much?
Because it is built to. LCRA describes lakes Buchanan and Travis as water supply reservoirs designed to fluctuate, capturing water in wet periods and dropping as water is used or evaporates. Lake Travis is considered full at 681 feet above mean sea level. Above that it enters the flood pool, which runs to the crest of the Mansfield Dam spillway at 714 feet msl and holds another 776,062 acre-feet of floodwater. Below 681 there is no floor except the drought. The recorded low is 614.18 feet, set Aug. 14, 1951. The recorded high is 710.44 feet, set Dec. 25, 1991. That is a 96 foot spread on the same shoreline. At its most recent daily reading Lake Travis sat at 681.11 feet and 100 percent full, which tells you where the lake is today and nothing about where it will be two summers from now.
What does a constant-level lake mean for a dock?
It means the water stays where the dock is. LCRA calls Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Austin pass-through lakes with no flood storage capacity, and says they typically operate within a one-foot range. On Lake LBJ the target operating range is 824.4 to 825 feet msl, a band of about seven inches. A dock built to that elevation works in July of a dry year the same way it works in April after rain. On Lake Travis, a 20 or 30 foot drawdown can leave a boathouse over dry rock, and the walk from the house down to the water gets longer every week the lake falls.
“On Lake Travis you are buying an elevation, not a waterline.”
How does LCRA keep Lake LBJ at one level?
By controlling what comes in and what goes out. Lake LBJ sits behind Wirtz Dam, completed in 1951, with Lake Buchanan and Inks Lake upstream and Lake Marble Falls downstream. Buchanan is the storage reservoir, full at 1,020 feet msl, and it releases water down the chain. Starcke Dam holds Lake Marble Falls at 737 feet msl below. Water passes through Lake LBJ rather than being stored in it, so the level holds. Floods are the exception, and the record shows it: 836.2 feet on Sept. 11, 1952.
Is Lake Austin a constant-level lake too?
Yes. LCRA lists Lake Austin, behind Tom Miller Dam, with a target operating range of 491.8 to 492.8 feet msl and groups it with the other pass-through lakes. One thing changes for buyers there. Docks are not LCRA's call on Lake Austin. LCRA states that the City of Austin is responsible for management of Lake Austin dock and safety regulations, so the rules you verify are city rules, not Highland Lakes rules.
What should I verify before buying waterfront?
Four things, in this order. First, the dock. LCRA does not require a permit, registration or fees for residential docks of 1,500 square feet or less, but the dock still has to meet the Safety Standards for Residential Docks on the Highland Lakes, and a non-compliant dock is the seller's problem only until closing. Second, the submerged land. LCRA is explicit that you must own or have permission to use the land under a fixed dock, and that owners next to LCRA-owned land must contact LCRA Real Estate Services first. Pull the deed through the Travis County Clerk's real property records instead of assuming the property line runs to the water. Third, the reach. Dock extension is capped at 100 feet from shore on Lake Travis and 50 feet on Lake LBJ, and a dock also needs an additional 40 feet of lake access, which a narrow cove may not have. Fourth, the elevation. Get the elevation of the shoreline improvements and compare it against the lake's actual history, not against the level on the day you toured.
