How can LCRA sell more water than it has?

LCRA does not guarantee that the water cities contract for will be available. The following is language from the Leander contract currently at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) hoping for approval. "LCRA makes no guarantee that the water supplied under this contract will be available at any particular time or place."

AND cities must pay for the contracted water whether they can get it or not. LCRA also has a 50% reservation fee in most of its 40 and 50 year contracts. Cities pay 100% for water they use and 50% for contracted water they do not use.

That price is currently $138 and $69 per acre foot. 

If Lake Travis goes dry in a major drought, the cities must pay 50% on their entire contracted amount until the next flood and they can get water again. (In the mean time, what do we drink?)

LCRA also claims that it contracts for water only and has no control over the location or the depths of the intakes. Strange point: LCRA owns quite a bit of land under Lake Travis . Seems they would have control over land they own.