LCRA proposes floating barge intake for Spicewood Beach water
SPICEWOOD BEACH — Officials have proposed a $1.2 million floating water-intake system as a long-term solution to the domestic needs of lakeside communities that have relied for months on water trucked in by the Lower Colorado River Authority.
PHOTO: Spicewood Beach in Burnet County has been under the strictest Stage 4 watering regulations because of a malfunctioned well that serves its residents along with Lakeside Beach and Spicewood Elementary School. The Lower Colorado River Authority has hauled in about 40,000 gallons per day since February 2012 to keep the water flowing for domestic use. LCRA officials are proposing a $1.2 million floating water-intake system as a long-term solution for the needs of the Spicewood Beach Water System. File photo
“Going to surface water (with a floating barge system) is a better long-term solution than just relying on the ground water,” said Ryan Rowney, LCRA manager of water operations. “Those wells … have been less and less productive.”
So-called “alluvial” wells rely on underground aquifer levels.
LCRA officials have hauled in about 40,000 gallons per day since February 2012, when the well serving those communities malfunctioned.
Since that time, LCRA has spent about $400,000 purchasing water from Capstone Ranch, about 12 miles southwest of Spicewood Beach outside Marble Falls.
The proposed new intake system would operate on a floating barge and recover about 475,000 gallons per day from Lake Travis to serve Spicewood Beach, Lakeside Beach and Spicewood Elementary School in Burnet County.
Canada-based Corix Inc. is expected to begin operating a string of LCRA water systems in the Highland Lakes including Spicewood Beach, Lake Buchanan Water System, Smithwick Mills Water System and Ridge Harbor Water System, pending sale approval by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“Until we get the sale actually consummated (with Corix), we need to keep moving forward,” Rowney said. “We need to get this system put in, so we can stop trucking in water. It is expensive.”
According to LCRA, a joint grant application for $275,000 with Burnet County is expected to be considered sometime in February to help fund the proposed floating intake project.
“It will be up to (Corix) to determine a most cost-effective solution,” he said. “We’re going to fund this to get it started, but the money that’s invested in this would be deducted from the purchase price.”
LCRA officials will consider the intake proposal during the Jan. 16 meeting in Austin.
connie@thepicayune.com