Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Recommendations to the city’s plans regarding water conservation strategies were presented to Kyle City Council at its July 2 special meeting.
This update follows a recommendation made as part of the adoption of the 2025 Water Master Plan, according to agenda documents. Since 2024, staff has worked with STV Engineering to provide updates to both the city’s Water Conservation — last adopted in 2024 — and Drought Contingency — last adopted in 2009 — plans, resulting in significant changes being recommended.
“The proposed Water Conservation Plan updates the city’s long-term strategy for promoting efficient water use, reducing water loss and ensuring sustainable water supplies to support continued growth. The plan has been developed in accordance with Texas Water Development Board and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requirements and reflects current utility operations, conservation programs and projected water demands,” read the documents. “To address future water demands, the plan establishes five-year and ten-year conservation goals, including municipal water use targets of 100 gallons per capita per day (GPCD) by 2030 and 95 GPCD by 2035, while maintaining water loss below 15% annually.”
The updated Drought Contingency Plan establishes procedures for managing the city’s water during emergencies affecting the water system and is designed to ensure reliable water service, while protecting public health, safety and welfare, read the documents. It also creates enforcement provisions, such as fines for violations, and a process for customers to request variances when compliance would create hardship or other conservation methods would achieve equivalent water savings.
Currently, there are three defined stages, but the proposed plan offers five, with a trigger threshold for each one — something that is not available in the present plan. The stages are triggered when any of the following criteria are met:
Voluntary Stage 1: Water consumption reaches 60% of daily maximum production capacity; Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) declares Stage 1; Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) declares Stage 1; Barton Springs-Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) declares Stage 1; or emergency as determined by city manager. Automatic irrigation would be two days a week.
Mandatory Stage 2: Water consumption reaches 70% of daily maximum production capacity; GBRA declares Stage 2; EAA declares Stage 2; BSEACD declares Stage 1; or emergency as determined by city manager. Automatic irrigation would be two days a week.
Mandatory Stage 3: Water consumption reaches 75% of daily maximum production capacity; GBRA declares Stage 3; EAA declares Stage 3; BSEACD declares Stage 2; or emergency as determined by city manager. Automatic irrigation would be one day a week.
Mandatory Stage 4: Water consumption reaches 80% of daily maximum production capacity; GBRA declares Stage 4; EAA declares Stage 4; BSEACD declares Stage 3; or emergency as determined by city manager. Automatic irrigation would be one day every other week.
Mandatory Stage 5: Water consumption reaches 85% of daily maximum production capacity; GBRA declares Stage 5; EAA declares Stage 5; BSEACD declares Stage 4; or emergency as determined by city manager. Automatic irrigation and all nonessential water use is prohibited.
Mike Van Winkle, division manager of treatment operations, confirmed that Alliance Regional Water Authority was considered when determining the production capacity. Additionally, he stated that any concerns regarding watering can be submitted through Kyle 311.
“I’ll go ahead and answer a question that may be on someone’s mind: If we were to operate under this Drought Contingency Plan today, where would we be? Staff did evaluate that internally and we would currently recommend under current conditions to operate in Stage 3,” said Van Winkle. “That being said, it sounds a little more restrictive than where we’re at now because we’re in an amended Stage 2, but because of those expanded drought stages, if you look at the reductions, it would actually be a little bit more lenient on that outdoor automatic irritation.”
If adopted, the plan will apply to all city of Kyle water customers, including residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and governmental.
Regarding this, Tim Sanford, assistant director for Utilities, discussed the processes that would go into finding individuals who violate terms. First, he noted that the initial conversations are always an opportunity for education.
“That is first and foremost what our approach is: very soft-handed. Now, if you’re a repeat offender, this plan does have some monetary value to it, if we need to penalize you,” explained Sanford. “Before we take that type of action, we would have conversations with the city manager. I assume the conversation would also be had with city council. The values of what that would look like is first offense [is] $100-$500 and $500-$2,000 for subsequent offenses thereafter.”
The decision to have fees is the result of diligent patrols to have regulations met in 2023, he shared.
Council member Courtney Goza asked how the tiers will work for commercial businesses, to which Sanford suggested council come up with examples for staff to explain at a later meeting, since it is more complex.
“What I would like to see is as people log in to pay their bill or log in to look at their [advanced metering infrastructure] dashboard — hopefully, eventually, one day that’ll be one login — that it would populate what stage we’re at,” said council member Marc McKinney. “I think for the most part, everybody wants to be a willing participant in our water consideration; they just don’t understand, more often than not, exactly what the requirements are. I mean, I’m a city councilman [and], sometimes, I have a hard time remembering and I have to look it up … So, I think if we can simplify that a little bit, it would help with participation on a voluntary basis.”
He also suggested having a reward for those who are extremely conservative and using less than a certain amount.
After Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale questioned whether or not construction sites are using potable water, Sanford stated that they are not, unless it is a capital improvement project, due to demands on the city’s system. However, he did note that there is flexibility within the Drought Contingency Plan that allows staff and city leadership to determine whether or not to sell potable water for construction purposes.
“I just want to say thank you because this is much needed information not just for the council, but for the residents because I think there was this kind of confusion, like, ‘Where are we at and how do we know we’re going to change?’ So, I wanted to say thank you to your team, whoever brought this forward, because this is such important information that we should have had years ago,” said Flores-Cale.
There was no action taken, as this was a presentation item, though, the plans will have a reading come to council in August, followed by a second reading at a later date.
