Consider and take appropriate action to approve an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement (ILA) and pLTE Service Addendum with Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to provide County access to LCRA’s private LTE network for control and monitoring of stream gauges, sirens, and other equipment related to the County’s compliance with Senate Bill 3. (Judge Brown & Commissioner Shea)<br><br>

Staff Report & Agenda Item Details

<br data-pasted="true"> n response to devastating and deadly floods that impacted thirty counties across central Texas in July 2025, the Texas Legislature in its second special session that year approved Senate Bill 3 (SB3), requiring counties impacted by the floods to design and implement stream-gauge-and-siren-alerting systems to better protect their residents and visitors. Travis County is working diligently to attain compliance with SB3 in accordance with deadlines set by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). <br>Under SB3 guidelines developed by the TWDB, the flood-warning system that we design and implement must include two communication methods, primary and backup, for remote monitoring, command, and control of all sirens and gauges. Communication methods include commercial cellular, wireline (which is generally not feasible), radio, and “private” LTE. Of these, the most practical are likely to be commercial cellular and LCRA’s private LTE (pLTE) network. (LTE stands for “Long-Term Evolution,” a term of art used by the commercial cellular communications industry to denote state-of-the-art technology. LCRA’s new LTE system utilizes its existing, licensed, 900 MHz two-way radio frequencies via a new cellular antenna network. This configuration allows for wireless connectivity in remote locations and at much higher bandwidth compared with LCRA’s legacy 900 MHz radio equipment.) <br>Prior to this, Travis County has never implemented its own system for monitoring waterways in the unincorporated county, instead relying on stream gauges installed by LCRA and the US Geological Survey, viewable online at LCRA Hydromet (https://hydromet.lcra.org). Hydromet is a system of over 380 automated river and weather gauges in the lower Colorado River basin. It provides near-real-time data on rainfall totals, streamflow, river stage, and lake levels in the Highland Lakes chain. The network tracks hydrological and meteorological conditions across the region to help monitor water supplies and manage flood operations. Since 2015, Hydromet has also incorporated all of City of Austin’s Flood Early 2 <br><br>Warning System (FEWS) stream gauges. <br>LCRA is well along in the process of converting all its stream gauges to pLTE, as is City of Austin with its robust and mature FEWS network. The present agreement will allow Travis County’s new SB3-compliant equipment to access the LCRA pLTE network. This access, ultimately, will facilitate the County system becoming part of the regional Hydromet system, though that next step will require additional equipment and another ILA. <br>While the design of Travis County’s SB3-compliant siren-and-stream-gauge network is not yet finalized, we know that one component of the finalized system is accessibility by the public. We want our residents and visitors to be able to see rain-and-weather activity in the waterways throughout the county. The most efficient and effective way to accomplish this is to connect our equipment to LC