Kyle Council adopts San Marcos water agreement

KYLE — At its meeting on Oct. 2, Kyle City Council approved water usage from the city of San Marcos, as well as celebrated the Hays Free Press’ 120th anniversary.

Council celebrated the newspaper’s 120th birthday with a proclamation.

“The Hays Free Press will celebrate its 120th anniversary with a year-end Then and Now series, highlighting the historic moments in the lives and times of people in the area and around the world,” the proclamation read. “[The paper] is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving Kyle, Buda and Hays County and is the only newspaper for local news and advertising in the area with an emphasis on stories about people in the community.”

Following the proclamation, the council voted on an agreement with the city of San Marcos to allow water usage under its permit.

Council previously heard a presentation from city staff that discussed the current water usage at its Aug. 29 meeting, where they voted to propose an agreement that would allow Kyle to have access to San Marcos' permit. Each permitee has a allotted amount of water it  can use from the Edwards Aquifer Authority and for Kyle to not overuse its permit, the city will pay to begin using San Marcos’.

Although the council approved the agreement 7-0 at the Oct. 2 meeting, council member Yvonne Flores-Cale had some concerns.

“This is the second year that we have requested the city to lend us their water rights, so I’m more than appreciative to them and their council for allowing that,” said Flores-Cale.

According to the council member, she found a 2021 Texas Comptroller report that covered emergency providers. In the report, it stated that the city of San Marcos is an emergency provider to Crystal Clear, WSC and Texas State University, while Kyle is listed to issue water to County Line SUD, if needed. This was worrisome to Flores-Cale, who asked what the “plan look like in the event that they have to borrow water from [Kyle].”

City of Kyle Division Manager of the Waste Water Treatment Plant Tim Samford responded by stating that the city is currently not in an agreement to be an emergency provider for County Line SUD. He explained that the confusion is most likely because there have been discussions about becoming an emergency provider, but nothing has been formally established.

Samford did stress that he will look into why the report states that the city of Kyle is  an emergency provider and will attempt to fix the issue.

Kyle City Council will meet again on Tuesday, Oct. 17.