LCRA Feels Repercussions of Spicewood Beach
The LCRA has been forced to truck in water to the Spicewood Beach community in Burnet county since wells there went dry this week. Photo by KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The failure of the Lower Colorado River Authority’s well in the Burnet County community of Spicewood Beach left about 1,100 people without a regular water source. The LCRA had been selling water from the well to private distributors up until three weeks before it failed, which has put a spotlight on the LCRA’s policy of selling water resources in a time of drought.
Residents always talked about the trucks they saw coming into town, filling up with water and driving away. Their questions became more pressing when they found out the well was about to stop flowing.
“Some trucks didn’t have labels; some trucks didn’t have anything on them. They were solid-white water trucks,” said Spicewood Beach resident Connie Heller. “You presume that LCRA knows about it.”
In most cases, the LCRA probably did. It had contracts with two water haulers and sold over 1.3 million gallons from the Spicewood Beach wells to them in the past year. One of those haulers was Hank Cantu’s Hills of Texas Bulk Water. The other was Hamilton Pool H20, owned by Larry Ogden. He said he was taking the water to nearby properties, often to private homes that aren’t connected to the public water system. When the LCRA declared stage three drought restrictions in Spicewood Beach on Jan. 4, Ogden said he and the other hauler were told to stop. Three weeks later, the well failed.
“It sure looks like, from this point of view, that they should have stepped in earlier,” Ogden said. “However, I don’t think commercial water haulers are the issue. I think when water’s being hauled from a pick-up point to local customers, it’s because there’s a need there.”
Now the LCRA finds itself in a difficult position. The agency posted a YouTube video today of General Manager Becky Motal addressing the Spicewood Beach situation. On one hand, Motal said the agency did nothing wrong. One the other hand, she said the agency will reform its policies to try to prevent a situation like this from happening again.
“And if an area where we provide water to a water hauler, that if they’re in stage three of a drought, that we terminate those water contacts as we have,” Motal said.
The LCRA is paying haulers to bring water into Spicewood Beach. They’ll continue until the well starts flowing again or other arrangements are made. Spicewood was moved to Stage 4 drought restrictions on Jan. 24.
Read more about this story on the StateImpact Texas website.
