The West Travis County
water reliability crisis

Five documented facts

• The treatment plant is at its ceiling. The Uplands plant is limited to 20 million gallons/day (PUA public statement, July 2025). Peak summer demand now reaches and exceeds daily production; storage tanks drain overnight instead of refilling.
• The utility has said so on the record. March 26, 2026 board minutes: the PUA "does not have the capacity to serve anyone else until additional water supplies are identified." New commercial service applications are frozen.
• The fix is years out and slipping. The expansion to 33 MGD, delayed by permitting and design complications, is targeted for December 2027. In May 2026 the PUA's engineers told the board that delivery dates for four Highway 290 system capital projects would not be met.
• August 2026 was the breaking point. Aug 21: emergency order to discontinue all irrigation, tanks critically low. Aug 24: boil notice, Hamilton Pool Rd. Aug 25: Stage 3 restrictions (declared because Stage 2's 20% reduction target "is not achieved" — the utility's own trigger language). Aug 26: systemwide boil notice. Aug 27: homes across the corridor woke to single-digit PSI or no water; three public schools went under boil protocols and one closed restrooms.
• Compliance history is not clean. The federal SDWA database lists ten violations since 2005, three health-based, including turbidity treatment-technique violations in October 2018 and November 2025 — and a Public Notification Rule violation opened July 2025, not resolved until March 2026.

Open questions on the record

• Enforcement. The PUA's own Aug 27 data release shows ~10.4 million gallons of prohibited irrigation in 24 hours, metered hour-by-hour. Its adopted Drought Contingency Plan prescribes penalties: notice, $500, $1,000, disconnection. Whether that ladder has ever been used is the subject of pending public records requests.
• Bulk hydrant sales. Residents documented commercial water haulers filling from hydrants during the emergency, including the morning of the Aug 27 pressure loss. Under Stage 3 of the adopted plan, hydrant use is limited to firefighting and public health, with construction use only by variance and meter. Volumes, purchasers, revenue, and suspension thresholds are the subject of a Public Information Act request the General Manager acknowledged in writing on Aug 27, 2026.
• Interim reliability. What bridges the gap between now and the plant expansion (Dec 2027 target)? The board record references a wholesale arrangement ending this winter, a 0.5 MGD interim connection under study, and a TWDB grant application — but no consolidated interim reliability plan has been published for customers.
• Representation. The PUA's five board seats are appointed by Bee Cave (2), Hays County (2), and Lake Pointe MUD (1). Unincorporated Travis County customers outside Lake Pointe MUD — among the most affected — have no appointing body.

What would actually help

• An inquiry to TCEQ (SDWA primacy agency) about the pattern of pressure-loss and boil events on PWS TX2270235 and the oversight steps being taken.
• Support for water infrastructure funding — the PUA has a Texas Water Development Board grant application pending; accelerating the plant expansion is the only durable fix. TWDB programs, SRF, and WIFIA are the relevant vehicles.
• A public accounting. A letter from any elected office asking the PUA board to publish (a) the written reliability response requested by the Reunion Ranch WCID board in May 2026, (b) drought-plan enforcement statistics, and (c) its policy on bulk hydrant sales during shortage stages would put the key questions on the public record.
• A voice for unincorporated Travis County customers in the Agency's governance conversation.

Constituents in this service area are engaged, organized, and documenting everything. The full fact sheet carries the timeline, the utility's own statements, the compliance record, and links to every source document.