by Ashley Sava
With local leaders open to alternative water solutions, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) claims it may have a solution to Buda’s water needs.
“We can supply water to Buda … for a while with the existing setup,” LaMarriol Smith, spokesperson for the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, said.
More specifically, the agency can support one million gallons per day for the city of Buda between 2017 and 2023 with existing water supplies.
That’s the amount the city contracted for with Electro Purification (EP) in recent months. EP is testing seven wells in western Hays County to see if it can produce up to 5.3 million gallons of water a day — or up to 1.8 billion gallons annually —for its three clients in the eastern part of the county.
The private water firm has contracts with Buda, as well as Goforth Special Utility District and Anthem, a planned development near Mountain City.
“If we got our Mid-Basin project going we could potentially supply [Buda] longer,” Smith said.
She said GBRA’s main water supply is Canyon Lake near New Braunfels. The pipeline currently supplies San Marcos, Kyle and Buda with water, but Smith said there is still water in the corridor, meaning the pipeline is not being used to its full capacity.
During last week’s Hays County Commissioners Court, Commissioner Will Conley said utilizing GBRA would nix the need for Buda to use Electro Purification’s services, and that if the entities shared the corridor’s resources, water could be more affordable.
“If one of the other entities (Kyle or San Marcos) released some of their water within the San Marcos Water Treatment Plant and IH-35 Delivery System, then GBRA would have the capacity to supply [Buda] the approximate one million gallons per day…” Smith said.
