- Several Central Texas communities utilize Waco’s water supply
- Weather plays a large role in the water demand
- Waco’s water revenue for fiscal year 2023-2024 was more than $6M
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Last Spring, we saw record breaking rain for the month of May, resulting in more water being released into the Brazos River — a method used to reduce the risk of flooding.
But the City of Waco told 25 News weather plays a large role in water demand, especially during winter storms and droughts where there is higher usage.
“In hot, dry months, it's really hard to keep up with demand without supplementing from Waco,” Woodway director of community services Mitch Davison said. “So that's typically what we how we operate,”
The City of Woodway isn't alone in reaching out for Waco’s help.
Robinson, Hewitt, Lacy Lakeview, Bellmead and West are also turning to Waco for its supply—
“Well, originally, we had a development that was proposed that was going to need some immediate needs as far as water goes,” Robinson utility services director Greg Hobbs said. “And it was going to take some time to actually expand our water plant to get the water to that location,”
The City of Robinson entered into a water contract with Waco in 2013, receiving 500,000 gallons of water daily.
“You've have you done a couple stories on our reservoir project, we're in the process of making some improvements to our plant and part of that is to increase the capacity,” Hobbs said.
But others, don't have that opportunity.
In a statement, the city manager tells me Lorena doesn't currently purchase water from Waco, but it's not opposed to the idea.
"While the possibility of connecting to the City of Waco as an additional source of water is currently not feasible due to the magnitude of costs surrounding the necessary improvements needed to connect the two systems, should this option of purchasing Waco water become a financially viable option for Lorena, it would assist in the future growth of the Lorena community,” Lorena city manager Kevin Neal said.
Neal says purchasing water from Waco could help keep up with our growing community, but the city lacks the funds to do so.
Lake Waco is about 92% full, though Waco residents are still required to follow a 3-day watering schedule.
