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to steward water resources and protect users in the Colorado
River Basin. The transfer of petitioner’s water out of the
Colorado River Basin would have diminished the amount of water
consistently available for future use within the Colorado River
Basin.
The city of Austin (Austin), the Colorado River Municipal
Water District, and property owners around five reservoirs
created and owned by the LCRA also expressed their intention to
oppose the granting of an amendment to petitioner’s certificate
necessary for the Corpus Christi transaction. Nevertheless, the
LCRA was not confident that it would be successful in blocking
the transfer to Corpus Christi.
C. Anticipation of the 1997 Legislative Session
Texas experienced a severe drought in the summer of 1996,
which was alleviated as of the valuation date. As a result of
the drought, on August 30, 1996, the TNRCC issued a report
recommending legislative guidance on the criteria to be used in
making determinations regarding applications for interbasin
transfers. In addition, other interested parties were lobbying
the Texas legislature to make the rules regarding interbasin
transfers both more and less restrictive. The interbasin
transfer issue was expected to be considered at the 1997
legislative session, which was to convene on January 14, 1997.
Within the Texas legislature there was support for expanding the
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