City of Kyle requests water from City of San Marcos for 2nd consecutive year

KYLE — At a special meeting held on Tuesday, Aug. 29, Kyle City Council heard details of a potential water agreement with the city of San Marcos for the second consecutive year.

The meeting began with a citizen comment period, when several local veterans discussed the water usage at Heroes Memorial Park.

“My concern is, I see the fire hydrant at the back and it was running pretty nonstop when I was out there. Today, it’s not, I didn’t see it, but I know the fire hydrant [water] is drinking water,” said Steve Cook, quartermaster of Kyle VFW Post 12058. “So, my concern is — if drinking water is going into the fountain, how do we change that? How do we get potable water?”

Cook continued, “It’s a new memorial and it seems like we need a better after-action report of all aspects of this. No one wants to see it turned down … We, all the veterans, enjoy it and every first responder, but there’s just too many open questions. I would like to see some of that answered and for the city to take a broad aspect and look at all the problems and see how we can work better in the future on this.”

“My biggest concern is the drinking water. If we are putting drinking water in there, yeah, I don’t think that’s quite right,” Cook concluded.

Council members then heard a presentation on the current water usage and city staff recommendations for potential changes to water restrictions.

According to assistant city manager Amber Schmeits, the city receives water from three sources: Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA), Barton Springs (BSEACD) and the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA). BSEACD and EAA mainly serve the city west of IH-35, while GBRA serves the east side of IH-35.

In order to stay within permit limits for all sources, staff reached out to the city of San Marcos to discuss the possibility of an interlocal water sharing agreement. As a part of the potential agreement, the city of Kyle must make adjustments to local water restrictions to match the Stage 4 restrictions already in place in San Marcos.

The History

In October 2022, the city of Kyle entered into negotiations for an agreement to receive up to 125 acre-feet — or 40.7 million gallons — of water from the EAA permit held by the city of San Marcos through the end of the 2022 calendar year.

The agreement was ultimately finalized in December 2022 and was valid through Dec. 31.

According to reports requested by the Hays Free Press in March 2023, the total water usage for the city in August 2022 was 13.4 million gallons, which was the third lowest usage month in the year — behind November and December.

On July 20, 2022, the city amended its Stage 2 drought restrictions to allow watering only one day per week (Stage 2 normally allows two days per week). Then, on Oct. 22, 2022, restrictions were loosened back to a standard Stage 2, which is where it remained until the Aug. 29, 2023, meeting.

The Current Requirements

“We’re probably one of the last communities holding out on upping our restrictions,” said Schmeits, as she laid out the Stage 3 amended restrictions that became effective Sept. 1, 2023.

As cities and other entities with the same water sources as Kyle, including Buda, San Marcos, Dripping Springs, Wimberley and more, have teetered between their respective drought stages three and four this summer, Kyle has been quiet on changing the restrictions, until now.

When asked what prompted the current change, Schmeits said, “It was the consumption that we were seeing in August. It was record-breaking consumption and it really put us up against the limits of our permit with EAA.”

Stage 3 restrictions include the following:

Customers may water (irrigate):

• By a hose and sprinkler, a soaker hose, drip irrigation or automatic irrigation system from 7-10 p.m. on their designated outdoor water use day every other week. The amended water schedule applies to both business and residential.

• By handheld hose or handheld watering can from 7 p.m.- 10 a.m. on any day. Any time a handheld hose is used, the hose must have a positive shut-off nozzle connected to the emitting end.

The use of sprinkler, soaker hose, drip irrigation, or automatic irrigation is allowed (on designated days, during designated times) as follows:

• No use on Saturdays and Sundays.

• September 4-8: No use allowed.

• September 11-15: Use allowed on designated week day and times.

• September 18-22: No use allowed.

• September 25-29: Use allowed on designated week day and times.

Items and actions which are prohibited during this stage of drought management include: 

• Installation of new landscapes.

• Filling of pools. No new pools will be permitted to open at this time. Pools may only be filled if it is to address health, safety or potential damage to property.

• Washing automobiles, trucks, trailers, boats or other mobile equipment at home or by hand. Commercial car washes are allowed at this time.

• Washing sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, streets, patios or other paved areas except to alleviate an immediate health or safety hazard.

• Sale of construction water.

• Using an automatic fill valve to add water to an outdoor swimming or wading pool or pond.

• Charity car washes.

At all times under drought management plan: 

• Requires customers to repair leaks, broken lines and watering fixtures and ensure that irrigation systems are operated in a manner which reduces waste.

• Prohibits run-off from property line to a distance of 50 feet or more.

• Prohibits allowing water to pond in a street or parking lot to a depth in excess of 0.25 inches.

• Prohibits watering or irrigation of landscape between the hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

What’s Next?

City of Kyle staff has worked with city of San Marcos staff to bring a proposed agreement to the San Marcos City Council at its regular meeting on Sept. 26. While Kyle staff does not anticipate a denial by San Marcos, they are considering other options in the event that San Marcos is unable to facilitate the request.

“Our next steps would be reaching out to other permit holders with EAA. And then if we're not successful in doing that, EAA has some processes in place that allow us to cover any over pumping that we may have,” said Tim Samford, treatment operations division manager for the city of Kyle.

Additionally, the city is anticipating the Alliance Regional Water Authority coming online in the fourth quarter of 2024 or first quarter of 2025.

In the meantime, Samford said that water modeling and plans for updated infrastructure are in the works.

“We're finding those areas of the system that can be improved upon, so we're not restricted to meeting demands in certain areas with EAA so that we can make full use of all of our other sources,” he said. “You have to understand, too, that it takes time because that's all CIP projects. But, there are a lot of different fronts that we're pushing on to resolve this issue as a whole for our water system.”

“We’re also praying for some rain,” Samford concluded.