WACO, Texas — The Waco City Council discussed the future of water supply in the city and possibly implementing changes to the city's drought and conservation plans at a workshop meeting on Tuesday, March 19.
The elected officials were supposed to take action on changing the water conservation and drought contingency plans, but they decided to table the conversation and decision to another time to take in the information and options they received Tuesday night.
"I think there's a lot of information to digest tonight and I think it might be good for council to be able to really process this," Mayor Dillon Meek said.
The City of Waco is reportedly in a good position with its water supply, but the city council is needing to take action to continue having the same success for the next several decades as water becomes harder to access and the demand soars.
"Generally I'm in favor of doing what we can conserve water when we need to," said Councilman Darius Ewing.
City staff told the council they are on high alert when it comes to the water supply because of the serious droughts it has seen in the last two years.
At the workshop, council members heard a presentation about an integrated water resource plan where they heard about their options of increasing the water supply. Some options included bringing in new suppliers by using existing Brazos River Authority rights and, or pulling water from Lake Brazos.
However, Tuesday's presentation showed that raising the conservation pool at Lake Waco, the city's biggest supplier, isn't their best option.
"Everybody likes to talk about just raising the lake level, but you are presented the challenge of redoing that dam at a cost of half a billion dollars," said Councilman Jim Holmes.
City council also heard recommendations about making changes to the water conservation and drought contingency plans.
Those possible changes included restrictions year round of only being able to water outdoors two days per week and only during certain hours. There could also be surge charges. City staff told council that other major cities in Texas have year round water restrictions including Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and El Paso.
Mayor Meek said they need to continue the legacy of being strategic and thoughtful about the water supply and that's why it's important to them to take time to make decisions about approving the plans presented.
"I think it's not lost on anyone that water will be gold in Texas," Meek added. "Waco has the opportunity to implement some strategies that is going to ensure its ability to grow and ensure its ability to thrive in both of these presentations."