BELTON, Texas — Water levels are low all across Central Texas, especially at Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Bell County.
"Our portion of the lake where the intake is looks more like a river now than a lake," said Ricky Garrett with Water Improvement District 1.
"We're not unique in that. A lot of the water suppliers on Lake Stillhouse that's the case."
The lake is dropping by about an inch every day, and is just a few days away from being the lowest it has ever been.
"It is approaching its record low lake level," said Aaron Abel with the Brazos River Authority.
"That occurred back in January of 2012, and the elevation was about 0.7 feet lower than it is right now. Right about eight to eight and a half inches. We do expect that lake level to reach the record low lake level in a week."
Eleven communities get their water supply from this lake, including Kempner.
With the lake now less than 60 percent full, Kempner Water Supply's General Manager Bruce Sorenson said they are working to ensure there's still enough for everyone.
"We've got five projects going on right now to remedy this," Sorenson said.
"We knew it was going to be a problem."
There's only about 20 days until the water level dips below where it's taken from right now. A project starting on Monday will create an addition to the bottom of the lake to allow for the water to be taken from a lower area.
"In the bottom of the lake, it's silted up over the years. You can imagine the Lampasas River flowing into the lake over the years and bringing in silt and sand and dirt," Sorenson said.
"It's covered the bottom of the lake, so we're putting an extension on it to get it up and out of the mud so we can produce water."
Other projects include increasing their capacities, so they are better prepared for the next drought.
"We're doing some plant upgrades so we should be somewhere around 12 million gallons here in the next 12 months," Sorenson said.
"We're adding more racks to the filter systems. Some projects to get our capacity up."
