Kyle may soon have to pay about $46,000 in penalties to the Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) for over-pumping during a water emergency last year.
In an email to City Manager Lanny Lambert, the city’s utilities coordinator Jason Biemer said the city overran its allotment of EAA water last year in response to heavy drought curtailment, coupled with a series of mechanical failures in the water’s distribution system.
“This was necessary to maintain the integrity of the water system,” Biemer said in the email. “Had this water not been used, we would have lost the distribution system completely during these mechanical failures.”
But the city did not over-pump its historical limit, Biemer said, it just over-pumped its curtailment levels. Because of the over-pumping, the EAA will issue Kyle a penalty of about $46,000, Biemer said.
Biemer has been in negotiations with EAA for several months to fund a small conservation and outreach program for Kyle, in lieu of paying the penalty. Biemer said he will formally present his plan to EAA on Aug. 28, during the committee hearing.
“The program incorporates reduced flow shower heads, education materials, dye testing for leaks and replacement parts for leaking toilets for 1,000 customers on a first-come first-served basis,” Biemer said.
Despite Biemer’s EAA negotiations, the Authority still could decide to reject the plan and require financial compensation, or provide guidance to a plan they’d be willing to approve.
Lambert said the EAA is “out of line” for penalizing during an emergency situation, but he understands that there are rules in place.
“I plan to file a formal protest to the EAA penalty for water use… they should have exceptions for emergencies,” he said.
Biemer said that had the city not used EAA water, there would have been no fire protection or sanitation, because the resource would have been completely exhausted. He went on to say that his office will always err on the side of having water for Kyle residents.
Biemer said Kyle had mounting issues that exacerbated the over-pumping of the EAA in November. He said the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA) had a broken water distribution line, prompting the city to use its stored water and wells. Meanwhile, a major 12-inch water line broke downtown, effectively depleting water sources. By that time, Biemer said, the deadline to buy or transfer water rights had passed, thus over-pumping the EAA.
On an average summer day, Kyle uses about four million gallons of water per day, Biemer said, but that number peaked last year at over five million gallons in one day.
