Once repairs begin, the city of Leander will move to Stage 4 water restrictions, which prohibits outdoor watering and restricts all nonessential uses of water. City staff will be notifying Leander water customers before the transition into Stage 4 takes place.
Some context
The BCRUA Water Treatment Plant is supplied with raw water from Lake Travis through a pumping barge and a 36-inch underwater pipeline. The treated water is then distributed to BCRUA member cities, including Leander, Cedar Park and Round Rock.
Instead of just fixing previously repaired underwater pipeline, crews will be completely replacing it with a new part, officials said, making it the “final repair.”
In the past three years, the pipeline has experienced three failures, and after a careful engineering analysis, the BCRUA board decided to just replace the pipe.
Quote of note
“This [repair] has actually been planned. This is something that we needed for a while. This is a permanent thing,” Leander council member Chris Czernek said at the Jan. 18 City Council meeting. “This isn’t, ‘A line just broke yesterday, and now we’re going into something.’ This is absolutely intentional, and it is on purpose. It is necessary so that we don’t have those problems.”
What to expect
Leander Executive Director of Infrastructure Dan Grimsbo said the repairs are anticipated to last roughly 30 days and wrap up at the end of March.
Grimsbo said he doesn't expect Cedar Park and Rock Round to have as extreme restrictions during the pipeline repair because they have more local water treatment capacity.
