Megan Navarro
AUSTIN — Following increased rainfall, hydrogeologist technician Justin Camp provided the Barton Springs Edwards-Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) Board of Directors with an aquifer status report at its Thursday, May 14, meeting.
The total April rainfall averaged approximately 5 inches — about 2.5 inches above the longterm monthly average — between Camp Mabry and Austin Bergstrom International Airport. This marks the first time the district has been over its monthly rainfall average since July 2025, Camp presented.
“May is typically our wettest month of the year and so far, we've received 3.2 inches of the monthly average of 5 inches,” he noted. “So, we are on pace to see that 5 inches throughout May.”
As of May 14, Barton Springs has peaked at 29 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the rain. Camp shared that he made a manual measurement last week and now, the current 10-day average is sitting at 17 cfs, which is an increase from the 12-13 cfs that the district was seeing when he reported to the board in April, prior to the rain.
He also presented the historical average for Barton Springs flow for the same month — dating back to May 14, 2024 — at 64 cfs.
As for the Lovelady Monitor Well, the 10-day average water level elevation is 454.10 and there has been subtle rise, knowing that this system takes time when it receives some recharge, Camp said. The historical average for Lovelady for the same month is 490.90.
“Water levels that we are at right now, we actually saw back in early March. So, you can kind of think of this as maybe a two-month delay where we currently were,” Camp said, adding that the district is still remaining in Stage 3 Exceptional Drought at this time.
The Lowe-Coronado Middle Trinity Well has also seen a positive boost, with a 0.8 foot increase in trend over the last 10 days. While that is down from the historical average, the caveat is the record only dates back to 2015, so “we are still building that historical record,” Camp said.
Jacob’s Well is still showing 0.0 cfs; while there was a bump to almost 2 cfs, it was short lived and almost back down to zero within less than a week.
Concluding his presentation, Camp shared that, for the monthly rain outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts above normal changes in Central Texas with the local forecast anticipating a high chance of rain the beginning of this week.
To listen to the full presentation, visit www.bseacd.org/agendas. More information on BSEACD, drought resources and more can be found at www.bseacd.org.
The BSEACD Board of Directors meets next at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 11.
