City Council agreed Aug. 8 to continue an interlocal agreement to provide water to the city of Cedar Park.

The decision to allow the sale of Round Rock's excess water supply was spurred by the planned Aug. 12 temporary shutdown of the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority water treatment plant. The BCRUA is a regional water supply project funded by the cities of Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander. The plant uses a floating barge on Lake Travis to pump its water. Because of the lake's declining levels, the BCRUA decided to shut the system down to avoid the barge hitting the lake's bottom and damaging its pumps.

"This interim agreement allows us to push [up to 2.8 million gallons per day of] water to Cedar Park if they need it," Round Rock Utility Director Michael Thane said. "If the city of Round Rock starts going into [watering] restrictions, then we cut that back. It is only if we have water available to them."

The city of Round Rock still imports the majority of its water from Lake Georgetown, which continues to hold a greater percentage of water capacity than Lake Travis. Unlike Cedar Park, the city of Round Rock has not yet been forced to institute watering restrictions.

"We can pump about 42 [million] or 43 million gallons per day. As dry and hot as it has been, we haven't gone above 28 million," Round Rock City Manager Steve Norwood said. "I think our conservation efforts have paid off greatly. We are well-protected."