LAMPASAS COUNTY, Texas — It’s no secret that Central Texas is experiencing an extreme drought right now forcing water supply companies to impose heavy water restrictions because of low lake levels.
Kempner Water supply has been under a Level 4 water restriction for weeks and at the board meeting Wednesday night, customers' frustration was on full display.
Many asking for more transparency and less harsh penalties for breaking rules in place because of the high restriction level.
”Keep this pressure on. Make this board provide the 1,000 minimum gallons a month for every water meter. If you let them off the hook, then it’s your fault,” said a Kempner Water customer speaking at Wednesday’s meeting.
Bruce Sorenson, General Manager of Kempner Water, said most of the concerns raised in the meeting were understandable.
”I think some of the concerns are, we're running out of water, what are we doing about getting more water,” said Sorenson. “I think a lot of people felt like they weren't getting enough information.”
According to Kempner Water, a small percentage of their customers are also upset about harsh crackdowns on water usage leading to water being cut off and even fines.
They said they are only cutting water for people who keep doing things like watering their lawns after being warned not to.
”So, we’ll call them back and say hey, this is what we found,” said Sorenson. “You need to cut your water off. We’ll keep monitoring and watching them and then a week or so later, we’ll just go and cut them off.”
They said the difference is thousands of gallons of water and with smart meters, they can see when and how much water you use.
”If we can see that somebody has used like 3,000 gallons in 2-3 hours, we know their watering,” Sorenson said.
Even with the rules posted on their website, customers are still frustrated with how harsh they are.
”At least give everybody some kind of relief because people have foundation issues, we can’t feed the animals, you have guilt feelings when you flush your toilet,” said Norma Renolds, Kempner Water Supply customer speaking at Wednesday’s meeting.
Kempner Water Supply said they want people to know that they can monitor when and how much water they use and can tell if you’ve been watering your lawn.
If you don’t follow the rules, they said they will cut your water off.
