Officials of the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, which services western Travis County and parts of Hays County, said Thursday the group has reached or exceeded—at least on paper—its water and wastewater service capacity.
“We are oversubscribed [on water, wastewater service] from a paper commitment standpoint,” District Engineer Curtis Wilson told WTCPUA Directors during Thursday's meeting at Bee Cave City Hall.
Here’s the takeaway:
- Board Vice President Mike Murphy said the WTCPUA wastewater treatment capacity is at 1 million gallons per day, yet current service commitments have the agency tally at 1.2 million gallons per day.
- Right now, the WTCPUA is not giving out new service contracts for significant developments, said Director Bill Goodwin, who is also Mayor Pro Tem for the city of Bee Cave.
- Many WTCPUA service contracts were inherited from the Lower Colorado River Authority when the agency was founded in 2012. All of those contracts do not have an expiration date, meaning these development commitments can tie up projected service for years without starting construction.
- In August, the WTCPUA agreed to grant service requests to a planned development in the Spanish Oaks neighborhood of Bee Cave. The project proposes to build 1,200 apartments and 450,000 square feet of office space. On Thursday, the agency approved service to the developer to accommodate 260 more apartments and about 210,000 additional square feet of commercial space if water and wastewater capacity exists. The service provisions were made pursuant to a 1999 agreement between the developer and the LCRA before the WTCPUA purchased its contracts.
- During the Thursday meeting, WTCPUA directors discussed the possibility of enacting a moratorium on issuing services to any new developments in its coverage area. The next WTCPUA meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 20 at Bee Cave City Hall, 4000 Galleria Parkway, Bee Cave.
