On Jan. 17, after about a year of negotiations, the Lower Colorado River Authority signed an agreement with the West Travis County Public Utility Agency to sell its West Travis County Regional Water and Wastewater systems.

"In my view, this is a big, big day," Sen. Kirk Watson, D-District 14, said at the signing ceremony at LCRA. "This is one of those days where a lot of creativity and perseverance went in to getting us here. This is the right step."

In November 2010, the LCRA board set four criteria for choosing buyers of the water and wastewater system:

• Ability/commitment to provide reliable, quality services
• Ability to invest capital for infrastructure
• Commitment to meeting state regulations
• Willingness to compensate LCRA for its investment

Many of the cities that use water from the system formed a coalition, fearing that another entity purchasing the system would take control away from local cities and possibly raise rates to users. The Coalition of Central Texas Utilities Development Corporation include the City of Bee Cave, the City of West Lake Hills, City of Rollingwood, Travis County municipal districts No. 3 and 5 as well as several other affected municipalities.

"If not for the assistance of Sen. Kirk Watson and the diligence and tenacity of the UDC participants, many of whom are not even served by the West Travis County System, this system would have been purchased by an investor-owned utility, which would have had a monopoly on the service to over 15,000 customers," UDC President Pix Howell said. "The sale of the system to the WTCPUA represents a huge victory for local control and cooperation among local public officials and neighborhood representatives."