By Christine Granados
Standard-Radio Post managing editor

The City of Fredericksburg does a good job of keeping its water loss rate low, officials were told at the Tuesday council meeting. But the water issue flowed downhill from there.

The city and Hill Country Underground Water Conservation District (HCUWCD) gave a joint presentation at the recent city council meeting about the future of the Gillespie County water supply, groundwater aquifer monitoring, water conservation measures and area rainfall. And the forecast was bleak.

In addition to giving information about the Ellenburger Aquifer Paul Baab, general manager with the HCUWCD, spoke about the weather forecast for the summer.

“We currently are in extreme drought conditions, with exceptional drought covering most of the county,” Baab said. “I have every reason to believe that, outside of us getting an anomaly no one is predicting right now over the summer, that we will probably find ourselves in negative five drought stage this summer.

Baab said the area has had below average rainfall for the past six years, as measured at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park.

“I would assume that (the board of directors) probably would take action in light of that, and that would require curtailment from all permitees,” he said. “That would probably trigger the city to enter into their own ground Stage 5.”

Baab said the city’s good stewardship of its water supply skewed his analysis numbers.

“The good job you guys have been doing to manage the San Antonio well field is throwing off our drought index. We can see increasing water levels historically in the San Antonio well field, which is good, but it wasn’t necessarily a realistic indicator of total conditions overall in the district.”

Baab said the city’s loss rate — water lost through pipes during transmission to customers — is excellent. Some rural communities suffer more than 30% loss of water. Fredericksburg, he said, has a 7% loss rate that means it “actually doesn’t have any loss as far as these pipes or waste of water. Seven percent is pretty much what it takes to operate a system.”

Council member Emily Kirchner gave kudos to the public works and utilities department for their work on conservation.

“It’s incredibly important to note, given the lack of rainfall then increased connections, 1,000 new connections, and 2% increase. Thank you for that,” Kirchner said.

The City has managed to keep water loss to a rate of 6.5%, said Kris Kneese, director of Public Works and Utilities department.

“We are the biggest user of the Ellenburger Aquifer and we need to be good stewards of the water that we’re pulling out,” Kneese said.

They are managing water loss through a water system leak detection survey; AMR “smart” meters; re-use of reclaimed water; a water rate adjustment/increase and watering restrictions.

The city has been at the critical water shortage, Stage 4 water restrictions

since April 2023. This means residents can water outdoors one day a week between 6-10 a.m. (See accompanying chart.)

Residential lawn watering continues to take up the majority of the natural resource, accounting for up to 70% of the overall water usage.

“Our reduction goal from going from stage three to stage four is 20% of the average daily water demand,” Kneese said. But that goal has never been met by the residents of the Fredericksburg.

“Weekend watering is a problem,” said City Manager Clinton Bailey. “It’s only allowed in the first two stages, which since Kris (Kneese) and I have been here we’ve never allowed weekend watering.”

Over 1,000 people in the city limits water their lawns during the weekend, according to city water meter records.

The city plans to send out a letter in the coming weeks reminding residents of the watering schedule and restrictions, Bailey said.

The city also has plans to discuss reconfiguring the water conservation stages/restrictions.

“We might just eliminate those first few stages,” Bailey said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever full scale allow watering three or four days a week.”

Sensus Customer Portal

Residents can monitor their water usage and receive email or text alerts to potential water leaks on their property for free using the Sensus Customer Portal. To sign up visit the City of Fredericksburg’s website and type in Sensus Customer Portal in the search bar.

Residents will need:

• Utility account number (do not include the dash in utility account when creating customer portal)
• Name as it appears on the utility bill
• Email address
• Phone number (if customer wants text message alerts)
• To create a password

Stage 4: Critical Water Shortage Water Restrictions

Watering Schedule
Addresses ending in:
1 or 2 – Monday
3 or 4 – Tuesday
5 or 6 – Wednesday
7 or 8 – Thursday
9 or 0 – Friday

Allowed Watering Methods on Designated Days

• All outdoor irrigation may occur between the hours of 6-10 a.m. on designated days.
• Watering with bucket or other hand-held container
• Watering of plants with a bucket or other hand-held container, hose or drip irrigation shall be permitted through Stage 4 of watering restrictions without limitation as to the day of the week, however, it can only be done during the hours of 6-10 a.m. and 6-10 p.m.
• Hand-held – means used or operated while being held in the hand or hands.
• Hose – means a common residential garden hose not more than one inch in diameter which includes a positive cut-off nozzle.
• Outdoor Irrigation by means of drip irrigation, watering with a hand-held hose or by buckets, may be prohibited, at the discretion of the City Manager, if specifically included in his or her declaration.

Regulations

• The day of the week restrictions do not apply to the irrigation of commercial plant nurseries; however, these establishments shall curtail all nonessential water use.
• The Fredericksburg City Council may implement a water rationing program if actions taken do not achieve the water reduction goals.
• The Fredericksburg City Council may institute water surcharges.
• The filling or refilling of water in privately owned swimming, wading, and jacuzzi-type pools is prohibited, however, a variance may be considered. Water may be added to pools to replace water lost due to use or evaporation on designated outdoor water use days.
• A variance may be considered to allow multiple platted lots with common ownership and single address to combine total outdoor watering hours.
• The watering of golf course tees and fairways is prohibited unless the golf course utilizes treated wastewater effluent or other water sources than provided by the City of Fredericksburg potable water system.
• Bulk sales of water for purposes other than potable consumption and sanitation are prohibited.