Texas Town Runs Dry, Relies on Water Trucks
Spicewood Beach, Texas, a community 35 miles outside of Austin, has begun trucking in water to replenish the town's water tank after its well ran dry, according to The New York Times.
On January 30, the small community of 1,100 residents started receiving daily deliveries of water, brought in by tankers trucks 10 miles away.
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which manages water for the community, plans to continue trucking in water over the next several weeks as it evaluates alternatives, including drilling a new well or connecting a pipeline to the nearby Travis Lake.
The LCRA received criticism from residents after it was discovered that it had been selling and shipping out the town's water just weeks before. 1.3 million gallons of water (roughly four percent of the communities water use) was sold to outside haulers.
The water deliveries the town is receiving now cost around $1000 a day. The agency said the expense would not be passed along to its customers.
The town had been under strict water restrictions, including a ban on all outdoor watering.
“It’s disheartening,” Ms. Barrett told the paper. “You have to kind of do everything at one time, and try to incorporate washing dishes and cooking at the same time, so you’re not using as much water.”
Texas has been suffering through the driest year in the Lone Star's history. The drought began in October 2010, and intensified in the middle of 2011. Despite winter rains, lake levels and reservoirs remain critically low. Spicewood is one of 13 communities in the state that official projected to run out of water in the coming months. Weather officials expect the drought to continue through the summer.
Read The New York Times article: http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/drought/
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