By Andy Sevilla

A Buda water supply evaluation study found the city would need an additional 30,000 gallons of water per day as soon as 2017 to quench the populations’ thirst.

The study by Lockwood, Andrews and Newman, Inc. (LAN), found that the city’s existing ground and surface water supply can handle the city’s water need through 2016. 

Buda’s water demand in 2013 was 1.1 million gallons per day (MGD), according to the study. Presently, the city’s water supply is a combined 2.0 MGD, which comes from the Barton Springs Pool of the Edwards Aquifer (groundwater) and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (surface water).

“Water is a critical issue for Buda,” City Manager Kenneth Williams said. “This is one of our top, if not the top, priority as an organization.” 

Buda, a partner in the Hays Caldwell Public Utility Agency (HCPUA), is involved in discussions to build a regional pipeline and transport water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to eastern Hays and western Caldwell counties. 

HCPUA was formed in 2007 to find solutions to help secure future water supplies for its members — Buda, Kyle, San Marcos and the Canyon Regional Water Authority. 

A timeline for the construction of the proposed 138-mile pipeline, however, has not been finalized and Buda’s future water need is not so distant. 

The LAN study found Buda would need an interim water supply of 2.0 MGD from 2017 through 2028. Even then, a pump station and a minor HCPUA pipeline piece from Kyle to Buda would need to be constructed along FM 1626 at a cost of $9.5 million.

Buda would only bear between five and 11 percent of that cost, depending on its finalized water share within the HCPUA partnership. 

By 2060, Buda’s water need is expected at about 5.6 million gallons of water per day, five times more than its present water need, the study found.

That’s where HCPUA comes into the picture. The regional agency is tasked to provide Buda with its permanent water supply, which would address needs well before 2060, likely as soon as the full pipeline is built. 

But until then, Buda is left to scramble for other water providers.

Electro Purification (EP), a private wholesale water supplier, has offered to provide water from the Cow Creek Formation of the Trinity Aquifer to Buda. Its estimated maximum projected production is 5.0 MGD, but 3.0 MGD of that already is earmarked for the Goforth Special Utility District in Hays County. 

For EP to get water to Buda, the private water supplier would likely need to use the proposed portion of the HCPUA pipeline that would run from Kyle to Buda along FM 1626.

Reservation costs for EP water are $0.36 per 1,000 gallons and its take or pay rate is between $3 and $4 per 1,000 gallons. 

Drew Hardin with LAN told council at its Sept. 29 meeting that once right-of-way has been acquired for the pipeline connecting Kyle and Buda, construction would take about 12 months.

Buda officials estimate water delivery could take between 2.5 to 5 years.

“We are working to secure water supplies well into the future,” Williams said. “The HCPUA supplies will take us into 2060 and with the EP source even beyond that.”

Buda city leaders directed staff to negotiate a contract with EP for 1.0 MGD, as well as to express interest in keeping the 3.6 MGD the HCPUA would provide as a permanent water supply.

It is still yet to be determined if HCPUA will allow EP to deliver water to Buda through its proposed pipeline connecting Kyle to the city along FM 1626. 

For now, city leaders still need to work with HCPUA on design and construction of interim facilities (pump station and the Kyle-Buda pipeline) by the 2017 summer. 

The delivery point of EP and HCPUA water into the Buda system also has yet to be verified.