Georgetown will run out of water in six years, new report says

Located about 30 miles north of Austin, Georgetown is a rapidly expanding city in Central Texas that will reportedly not be able to sustain its growth. The city sources 70% of its water supply from the Brazos River Authority and a limited quantity of groundwater from the Edwards Aquifer, according to the city’s newly released executive summary of its Integrated Water Resources Plan. The report predicts that the city will start to see gaps in supplying water to all of its residents by 2031, which will balloon to a 99,000 acre-foot per year gap by 2070. 

In order to combat the lack of water in the future, the city analyzed six new sources, further conservation efforts, and two infrastructure plans. The report also estimated how difficult it would be to get permitting for those sources, as well as how reliable they would be and how much public support there would be for each source. As far as overall conservation goes, which Georgetown started in 2022, the city estimates that there is low public support for that effort. 

The rest of its efforts for new water sources would take effect in 2030, with only two that have a predicted high dependability and only one with easy permitting. Georgetown estimates that sourcing from Hosston groundwater would be easy with high public support, but that only yields a little over 13,000 acre-foot per year by 2070. The biggest source is predicted to be new groundwater, which has an estimated moderate reliability, high public support and difficult permitting. 

The city said it will have to use multiple new sources to meet future demand rather than just one new source. Georgetown created six plans of different source combinations that will all cost the city more than $1.5 billion, with the highest cost sitting at a little over $2 billion for the plan consisting of new groundwater plus water reclamation with no water from regional groundwater.  

Overall, the city ranked the six combinations for best adaptability, taking into consideration cost, public support, reliability, and permitting complexity. Two came out on top. Both of these plans utilized all available sources of water, including new groundwater, regional groundwater, and water reclamation. 

“Because of the uncertainty in volume and cost of regional groundwater supplies, the City may need to aggressively pursue new groundwater and regional partnerships,” the report reads. “Each portfolio requires that to keep up with increasing demands, the City must have a new supply online by 2030. The City should move forward with constructing wells and conveyance infrastructure for Hosston aquifer supplies, as well as facilities that will treat and connect regional groundwater to the distribution system.”

The report concluded that although there are multiple options for meeting future water demand, water conservancy must be a part of the decided plan, and the city needs a new supply in six years to avoid shortages.