Hays County is looking for alternative groundwater supplies. An open Request for Proposals seeks to pipe in water from aquifers that could be tapped to supplement water from the Edwards and Trinity aquifers.
County Commissioner Ray Whisenant (R-Precinct 4) says the existing supply of water appears to be unsustainable with the county's current growth rate.
“As Hays County grows and with more demand on the local groundwater aquifers, if we’re going to maintain some ability to hold our own or possibly grow some, there’s going to have to be some additional availability of water," he said.
The request for proposals calls for delivery of up to 50,000 acre feet of water per year to Hays County, which Whistenant says is about how much is being used right now. The water would be piped to Hays in a contract that would likely cost millions of dollars, he said.
As you can read in the RFP, the county’s preference is for water to be drawn from the Simsboro formation in Lee and Bastrop Counties.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that San Antonio receives water from the Simsboro formation. It does not. We regret the error.
