Final update: 5 p.m. Feb. 19:
Water Control and Improvement District No. 17 has restored water service to all neighborhoods and is halfway done with refilling a key water tower located near Hwy. 71, according to WCID 17 General Manager Jason Homan. Once that is complete, full water pressure will return. That should occur sometime around 7 p.m., he said.
WCID No. 17 crews were in the Falconhead West and Serene Hills neighborhoods checking fire hydrants and assisting residents, he said. Customers should continue monitoring their utility website for updates about boiling water before consumption and how to shut off water in the event of a leak within their home.
Original post:
Overnight progress restoring water service to west Travis county neighborhoods was being reported early Feb. 18 by Water Control and Improvement District No. 17.
Water service has been restored to the Baylor Scott & White hospital, according to Jason Homan, the general manager of WCID No. 17, a water utility in the area. Others include Lakeway Municipal Utility District and the West Travis County Public Utility Agency.
“We’ve restored water pressure and supply to all of Hudson Bend and Baylor Scott & White hospital as well as the neighborhoods around the hospital,” he said.
Of concern for Feb. 18 is restoring service to Falconhead West and Serene Hills, and that requires refilling one of the water towers along Hwy. 71 to restore needed water pressure, Homan said.
“That’s a very large service area so it will take a good six to seven hours to get them fully refilled,” he said. “We are very confident that we will get over this last hill.”
Also, all three WCID water plants are currently fully operational, he said.
While the operational situation improves, city government and water utility officials continue to urge residents who have water service to continue to conserve and not contribute to the record-level demand for water for this time of year, according to a Feb. 17 Facebook post by the city of Lakeway.
Lakeway Municipal Utility District released a statement on Facebook, asking all Lakeway to discontinue all nonessential water use to avoid a citywide water shutoff. WCID No. 17 also needs its customers to conserve water by not taking showers or washing clothes.
“We are asking all customers to continue conservation for the next 12 hours," Homan said.
Bee Cave Mayor Kara King on Feb. 17 also addressed the water supply situation in west Travis County in her nightly update on Facebook to Bee Cave residents. She detailed a plan to distribute gallon-containers of water had been delayed due in part to hazardous road conditions.
“TDEM [Texas Department of Emergency Management] can’t get their trucks there (road conditions) to load the pallets of water and then to deliver out here. We are very hopeful of tomorrow,” she stated in her online post.
Also, area residents who are customers of WCID No. 17 are under a boil-water notice due to the losses in water pressure in the area. The alert does not apply to residents of Steiner Ranch, according to a statement released on the WCID website Feb. 17.
