Proposal aims to help city avoid $46,000 fine for overpumping in 2011
The drought that hit Texas in 2011 forced many cities to impose water restrictions and ultimately led to the City of Kyle being fined $46,000 by the Edwards Aquifer Authority for overpumping.
On Sept. 11, the Kyle Public Works Department submitted a proposal to the EAA that would allow the city to put that money toward water conservation efforts.
EAA Assistant General Roland Ruiz said the authority approved the proposal the same night.
Kyle received the fine after pumping about 51.6 acre-feet more than its permit allows. The permit, which the EAA granted in 2008, allows the city to pump 432 acre-feet per year, but drought restrictions in 2011 reduced that amount to 350 acre-feet.
"It's not unusual to see entities overpump during severe drought years," Ruiz said. "Generally it's in those years when we do see more overpumping relative to noncritical period years."
One acre-foot of water is one square acre that is 1 foot deep, or 325,851 gallons of water.
Kyle Utility Coordinator Jason Biemer said there are two possible courses outlined in the proposal to the EAA.
Under the first scenario, the city would implement a credit system for low-flow toilets, new shower heads and water aerators. When residents make the qualifying replacements to homes or businesses, they would present the receipt to the city for a credit on their next water bill.
The second scenario would involve the city distributing boxes that include showerheads and aerators to residents.
Biemer said he is skeptical of the second option because it would be more labor-intensive for city staff.
"As a smaller city, we don't have a whole lot of labor to stick to something like that," he said. "You're also buying the box to put it in, which really and truly isn't forwarding the conservation effort."
Biemer said the EAA approved a two-year timetable for the program to be executed.
"But I'm hoping, I'll be very, very tickled if right around mid- or late January we can start the [public relations] spin-up and maybe start doing credits as early as mid-February," he said.
Diversification of supply
Biemer attributed the overpumping to what he described as an "act of God."
During the late afternoon of Nov. 10, a 12-inch main pipe ruptured and began leaking about 2,000 gallons of water per minute beneath the 600 block of Live Oak Street.
By comparison, the city's two downtown booster pumps can achieve a flow of about 1,100 gallons per minute.
The rupture was repaired in the early morning of Nov. 11, but by then, the damage had been done. The pipe had hemorrhaged about 1.32 million gallons, or about 4 acre-feet of water.
Ruiz said Kyle's growing population has affected the city's water needs, but the EAA is not in a position to grant more permits. The authority is allowed to permit 572,000 acre-feet per year, and it has already met that limit.
"What you're going to continue to see across the region is that municipalities and other public water suppliers like the City of Kyle and others—if they haven't already—they're probably going to look to diversify their water supplies, so they're not just dependent on the Edwards [Aquifer] as their water resource," he said.
Ruiz listed roof water supplies and desalination as other possibilities.
Biemer said individual usage is still good.
"A lot of our customers are very [conscientious] about conserving their water," he said.
Kyle pumps all its groundwater from the Edwards Aquifer's San Antonio pool and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. The city pumps its surface water from the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority.
Biemer said he hopes the proposed program provides a template for the city's soon-to-be-updated conservation master plan.
"We're going to try to take something that was negative and turn it into something that was positive," he said.
