Posted: Thu, 26 May 2016 07:53 AM - 22,041 Readers

By: Natalie Ferrari

Rising lake levels at Lake Travis have been a welcome sight over the past year, not only for visitors, but for local businesses on the lake.

This increase in visitors directly correlates to a company’s bottom line.

Steve Allen is the owner of Riveria Marina on Lake Travis. Just one of the many local business that have been reaping the benefits of a full and healthy lake. However, before things got good, they were pretty bad.

“This whole cove here was dry,” Allen says, as he points to the part of the lake his business sits on. “Customers were really scared to use the lake which couldn’t be worse for the marinas on Lake Travis.” He continues, “the stigma of having a low lake chased a bunch of people away.”

• Current lake levels

At the start of May 2015, Lake Travis was roughly 40 percent full. The lake eventually climbed to 77 percent after Memorial Day weekend.

Fast forward to May 2016, Lake Travis is just over 100 percent full. That added up to an increase of almost 36 feet in that month alone!

Now that lake levels have risen over 50 feet at Lake Travis within that year window, business couldn’t be better.

“We had a huge recovery, we started Memorial Day of last year and we’re back to Memorial day this year and the lakes over full by two or three feet so we’re just extremely ecstatic,” Allen tells us. “Customers started coming back after Memorial Day of last year and it hasn’t stopped since then.”

Allen also says that thanks to recent updates made on water management plans and water releases, he’s hopeful that his business will continue to flourish.

“[Lake levels] will drop again,” Allen believes. “It’s a matter of when it’s going to do it again, but with the changes that the state legislatures made and the TCEQ has made, hopefully we’ll never see those lows again.”

In the meantime, Allen wants people to “be conscious of conserving water and making sure we keep every last drop that we can and not just wasting water.” Great advice, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.

*  Story Contributed by: Natalie Ferrari