Securing water From the cover
Digging deeper
The big picture
aquifers and roughly 3,400 wells, Lost Pines GCD General Manager Jim Totten said. O cials are actively advancing a project to construct a 36-mile underground pipeline from a Circleville storage tank to a future endpoint in Georgetown, a city o cial said. The city’s payments will begin once water starts owing, which could take several years.
During a special-called meeting Dec. 30, city council members approved a 30-year agreement with GateHouse Water to purchase 18,500 acre-feet per year, or 16.5 mgd, from part of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Lee County. GateHouse is permitted to produce and trans- port the water from the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, which manages six major
Georgetown’s 2022 Integrated Water Resource Plan—a document detailing the city’s long-term water needs—found the Georgetown water utility needed additional water sources online by 2030. In an e ort to close the gap, city o cials are negotiating three potential groundwater contracts with EPCOR, GateHouse Water and Recharge Water, Brewer said. In 2023, the city entered into a two-year reservation agreement with EPCOR. The nal contract, pending approval, would deliver 32-62.5 mgd of treated groundwater by 2030. The project involves constructing an 80-mile underground pipeline from Robertson County to Georgetown, per the city’s website. O cials are also negotiating a pricing proposal with Recharge Water to assess the cost of a phased delivery of up to 31 mgd per year. As the contracts currently stand, any one of the three could produce the amount the city needs by 2030, Brewer said. Combined, the contracts could bring up to 110 mgd of additional groundwater to the city. The IWRP called for part of the city’s new supply to be groundwater since it’s less susceptible to drought than surface water. Long term, o cials are still guring out how the contracts might work together, Brewer said. The city needs to secure a total of about 140,000-180,000 acre-feet of water per year—or 125-161 mgd—by 2070 to keep up with demand, per the IWRP.
GateHouse pipeline breakdown
GateHouse construction
City construction
Georgetown endpoint
77
Milam County
Georgetown city limits
Circleville storage tank
79
130 TOLL
Ground storage tank and pump station
GateHouse storage tank
Williamson County
35
Lee County
Travis County
MAP NOT TO SCALE N
SOURCE: CITY OF GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY IMPACT
Put in perspective
Acre-foot: the volume of water that covers an acre of ground to a depth of 1 foot
Aquifer: an area with permeable sediment that can transmit large
Georgetown’s water supply The city of Georgetown is looking to diversify its raw water resources.
Georgetown’s water utility reaches over 170,000 people across its 440-square-mile service area, according to the city’s website. By paying reservation fees to the Brazos River Authority, Georgetown has water rights to its current major surface water sources: Lake George- town, Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow Lake. “They pump untreated water into Lake George- town,” Brewer said. “We pull it and treat the water and then send it on to homes and businesses.” However, the BRA is limited in how much water it can promise in the future, Brewer said. “We’re pursuing [groundwater] because we don’t have any more [surface water] options locally,” Georgetown Strategic Projects Manager Caroline Stewart said. “This is the next best option.” Due to its production and transportation needs, the city will pay “signi cantly more” for ground- water as opposed to surface water from the BRA, Brewer said.
quantities of water to wells Groundwater: water that comes from beneath the ground, usually from wells or springs Surface water: water on Earth’s surface, including lakes, ponds, rivers, oceans, streams
In Texas, rights are owned by the state Groundwater is owned by its landowner
Surface water Edwards Aquifer
Recharge
Minimum EPCOR Maximum EPCOR
GateHouse
200M
Million gallons per day: a method to measure water
• 1 mgd = 1,120 acre-feet per year • 1 mgd serves roughly 2,240 households
150M
100M
Raw water: untreated water from a lake, river or stream that’s suitable for irrigation but not human consumption Groundwater conservation district: a district authorized to regulate groundwater in Texas
50M
0
Current
Future*
SOURCES: BRAZOS RIVER AUTHORITY, CITY OF GEORGETOWN, JACLYN WISE, LOST PINES GROUNDWATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, TEXAS WATER DEVELOPMENT BOARD COMMUNITY IMPACT
*POTENTIAL, PENDING APPROVALS SOURCE: CITY OF GEORGETOWN COMMUNITY IMPACT
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