COLLIN COUNTY, Texas — Woody Woodruff of Greenville lives by the phrase, "Do something you love, and you'll never work a day," he said. Woodruff owns Woody's on the Lake in Lake Lavon. It's a boat rental business and floating restaurant he has owned for more than five years now.
"This is my office, couldn't be any better!" said Woodruff. "You gotta have water to rent boats. It's essential to what we're doing."
Lake Lavon is also essential to the area. The lake is the primary supplier to the North Texas Municipal Water District, a water wholesale provider. The water that originates from the lake is treated and delivered to many homes in the North Texas area.
NTMWD has 13 member cities and serves 2 million people daily. And as the population grows, so does demand. The district forecasts an additional 55,000 users every year.
"As they say, no one is bringing water with them, so our efforts are in conservation and reuse and trying to stretch our existing supplies as much as possible," said Galen Roberts, the assistant deputy of water resources at NTMWD.
But the million-gallon question: Is there enough? The short answer is yes -- for now.
"Our recommendation really is that communities in Texas really need to look at efficiency, water conservation, and repairing leaky infrastructure," said Jennifer Walker, who is with the National Wildlife Federation and a member of the Water Conservation Advisory Council.
This may be no surprise, but the largest water user in Texas has always been agriculture. Experts forecast that, by 2050, municipal water will take over.
"The agriculture trend is going down and municipal water trend is going up and those lines will actually intersect," said Walker.
"That's where my restaurant was sitting," said Woodruff, who remembers a time the entire marina had to be moved to deeper water. The drought almost forced it to happen again last year.
Right now, Lake Lavon is at 100% capacity. Other parts of the state, especially south and central, have not been so lucky.
"We plan for the worst-case scenario. It's amazing what rain will do in the right spot and at the right time," said Roberts.
Timing is everything in Woodruff's business. He's still reeling from the heavy winds and possible tornado that tore through his docks in March.
"Mother Nature, you don't mess with Mother Nature," Woodruff said.
And when Mother Nature gifts you a full lake, don't take that for granted.