AUSTIN — After Austin Water issued emergency water use restrictions because they said customers were using too much water, Travis County's District 10 and West Travis County has also announced water conservation measures.
The West Travis County Public Utility Agency implemented Stage 4 Emergency Water Conservation Measures Wednesday. Until further notice, customers should know of the following:
- Irrigation of landscaped areas is prohibited.
- Use of water for the irrigation of golf course greens, tees, and fairways is prohibited unless the golf course uses an alternative water supply source, such as reclaimed water, rainwater, or gray water.
- Use of water from fire hydrants shall be limited to firefighting and activities necessary to maintain public health, safety, and welfare only.
- No applications for new, additional, expanded, or larger water service connections, meters, service lines, pipeline extensions, mains, or water service facilities of any kind shall be allowed or approved.
Customers with West Travis County PUA who have additional questions should contact customer service at 512-263-0125 or customerservice@wtcpua.org.
Travis County District 10 sent an email to KVUE on Tuesday stating, "Travis County WCID 10 is experiencing low pressure at this time and conserving water is critical."
District 10 stated at this time it is implementing a mandatory stage four water restriction, asking those in District 10 to reduce normal water use by 20 percent. They suggest taking shorter or fewer showers and not running your washer or dishwasher at this time. You can find a map of the area impacted, here.
"The City of Austin is working on resolving the low-pressure issue and we will update you with and developments as they become available," stated the district.
This all comes after the City of Austin issued a boil water notice Monday morning following historic flooding that brought in high levels of silt into the city's water supply, making it challenging for the water plants to produce the volume of water needed to supply customers.
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Austin Water treatment plants can only produce approximately 105 million gallons of water per day, but customers are currently using 120 gallons per day, Austin Water said. All residents are asked to reduce their water use by 15 to 20 percent.
Austin Water and Travis County District 10 said customers should not:
- Use water for irrigation or testing of irrigation equipment
- Wash vehicles, including at commercial car wash facilities
- Wash pavement or other surfaces
- Add water to a pool or spa
- Conduct foundation watering, or
- Operate an ornamental fountain or pond, other than aeration necessary to support aquatic life
Violations of these restrictions should be reported to Austin 311, as should observations of price gouging for water supplies
In a phone interview with Austin Mayor Steve Adler Monday night, the mayor reiterated the urgent need for Austin residents to conserve water.
"If we can conserve, then we’re going to be able to get past this boil notice more quickly," Adler said. “There’s no reason we need to be irrigating lawns right now or washing cars. We can all conserve a little bit more water inside. If we do that, then there’s no reason that anybody is going to run out of water.”
After the notice was issued, Adler said there were no reports of negative testing or findings in the water, but that the boil notice must stay in place as a preventative measure.
There were several calls made to the KVUE newsroom Monday from residents asking why the city had not issued a reverse 9-1-1 call to get the word out sooner. The mayor responded with:
“We have reverse 9-1-1 calls. We have alerts that people can sign up for to get from the city. We were obviously talking to all the media. We were on social media to get the news out. We talked to different organizations who were contacting their membership, like the restaurants association. We were doing everything that we have in the protocol that’s been established to get the word out just as widely and as quickly as we can.”
Adler said it's still unclear as to when the notice will be lifted, due to more rain moving into the area from Hurricane Willa crossing into Mexico.
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Until the boil water notice is lifted, residents are asked to continue conserving their water and boiling it before use (ex: drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, food/baby formula prep, for pets...)