Georgetown, Chisholm Trail SUD enact watering restrictions

For Georgetown and Chisholm Trail SUD water customers, the restrictions mean watering lawns with automated sprinklers is restricted to assigned days. Exceptions, however, are made for car wash and plant nursery businesses, filling pools and washing vehicles.

Although parts of Williamson County received significant amounts of rainfall in October, the storm systems dropped less than 5 inches of water into Lake Georgetown. In fact, despite several days of rain in October, the lake's level rose by less than half a foot during that time. According to data recorded by the U.S. Geological Service, on Nov. 5 the lake's level sat at 773.75 feet above sea level—or approximately 50 percent of its capacity.

The lake's water level has been in decline since early March, when its water elevation sat at 779 feet above sea level.

"The restrictions were put in place due to the continued drought conditions [and] the levels of Lake Georgetown and Lake Stillhouse," Georgetown Utility Manager Glenn Dishong said, adding that the restrictions will remain in place until those conditions improve.

"The restrictions will depend upon rains, the impact of such rain to the lake levels and the lifting of the Stage 2 drought warning by the BRA," he said.

Compounding the lack of rainfall has been the failure of two of the four pumps that feed Lake Georgetown with water from the much larger Lake Stillhouse Hollow near Belton. When all of the pumps are online, the BRA can feed up to 42 million gallons per day of additional water into Lake Georgetown. With half of the pumps currently disabled, however, the lake is unable to keep up with the water being drawn from it.

"Our pipeline is moving about 25 million gallons per day [into Lake Georgetown]," Hoffman said. "Our customers out of Lake Georgetown are pulling anywhere from 36 [million] to 46 million gallons a day out of the lake—so we just can't keep up."

Additional reporting by Beth Wade