Leander - Liberty Hill | September 2023

Leander, Liberty Hill work to secure water supply amid drought From the cover

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have moving forward is a lack of production capacity with our current wells,” he said. “But we are also looking at resolving those with several future projects.” Teeter said Leander has remained under restrictions because its water infrastructure has not kept up with population growth; however, the BCRUA’s Deep Water Intake Phase 2 project—which will build a tunnel to extract water from the bottom of Lake Travis—aims to address that. “We have a major project to help us get water out of Lake Travis in a better way that will make it more available even when the lake [is] lower,” Teeter said.

Leander residents receive water from the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority, a partnership among Leander, Cedar Park and Round Rock that distributes water from Lake Travis. Liberty Hill receives 25% of its water capacity from three active wells and 75% from an interlocal agreement with Leander to purchase treated water. David Thomison, director of public works in Liberty Hill, said one well is being expanded to produce twice the amount of water and the city is looking to identify additional sites for water treatment facilities. “One of the issues that we

and Stillhouse Hollow Lake, are similarly low. “Given how long our [rainfall] decits go back and how signicant they are, we’ll continue to see drought impacts through the end of this year, almost guaranteed,” National Weather Service meteorologist Keith White said. “The good news about the El Niño, though, is that it will tilt our odds toward wetter conditions by the time we get into the winter time. So we can hopefully start to make up some of those decits in December, January and February of next winter.”

Central Texas was hit with a double threat this summer: record-breaking high heat and little rainfall. The region has seen temperatures over 100 degrees nearly every day since July 8, causing increased evaporation of local water reservoirs, dried-out soil and increased wildre risk. Lakes Travis and Buchanan collectively dipped to 44% capacity in August, the lowest they’ve been since 2013, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority. Other regional water sources, including the Edwards Aquifer, Lake Georgetown

Exceptional drought —or Level D4 drought—is the most intense drought category on the U.S. drought monitor

195

and occurs when the region experiences 98% dryness.

183

Williamson County

Leander and Liberty Hill water usage Leander Liberty Hill

35

Extreme drought (D3) Exceptional drought (D4)

Millions of gallons of water per day

Millions of gallons of water per month

Travis County

20

25

130 TOLL

71

Percentage of county in exceptional drought conditions Williamson County

20

15

290

15

Hays County

10

99.5% Travis County 100% Hays County 100%

10

35

5

5

0

0

N

AS OF AUG. 30

SOURCE: U.S. DROUGHT MONITORŸCOMMUNITY IMPACT

SOURCES: CITY OF LEANDER, CITY OF LIBERTY HILL COMMUNITY IMPACT

20

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM

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