I don't think this made news outside of New Braunfels, but it sure as hell should have.

Last Friday (July 7), the City of NB issued a boil water advisory for Copper Ridge subdivision. For the OB posters not in NB area - Copper Ridge is a large lot (1-3 acres) development on Hwy 46, just NW of town. Popular place for custom homes builders, and the popularity is aided by access to city water. No wells needed - just hook up to NBU and pump away.

Copper has thier own tank capable of pumping 550,000 gallons a day to serve the development. On Friday, water demand from the residents of Copper Ridge caused the water pressure at the tank to drop below 20psi, and the city issued a boil water advisory. I dont fully understand the boiling requirements being tied to water pressure - has to do with TCEQ - and I'm sure there is an OB poster that can explain. What I do know, is the water use to cause the pressure drop was astronomical.

Per NB Utilities: "The average daily use of a residential customer is 275 gallons. The average daily use in Copper Ridge on Friday July 7 was 1,300 gallons, nearly exceeding the 550,000 tank capacity that supplies Copper Ridge."

I've driven through Copper Ridge. From what I've seen, there are no homes with St. Augustine. Hopefully the use of St. Aug grass for new builds in the Hill Country is a thing of the past. That said - every home has a yard. And a green one. Many homes have pools. I don't know the average square footage, but the houses are big. Lots of shower heads, sinks, etc.

All this to say - even with water wise grass and native landscapes - 1,300 gallons per person is insane water use, and I'm sad for the Hill Country. Water use, water prices, water deliverability - its all been discussed here on the OB before. And this isn't just a Hill Country problem. So wherever you are today - do your part, save some H2O. Let that grass get a little brown, cut the shower a little short. We must be the ones to educate our kids that water is not in endless supply.

[Cue old man rants abour ranchettes and new trucks while ignoring population growth cocerns and how we can all do better]

I'm still looking for a socially acceptable population reduction mechanism, and I'm all ears on any plan you might come up with.

Also, those houses use more water in 2-3 days than I use in a month!!

I believe in having a green lawn. That being said, every year I have to convince my wife that its ok that our St. Aug is ok being a little crispy (but green) the day before watering in July and August.

The boil notice goes into effect once the system pressure goes below 20 psi because of the high potential for the introduction of contaminants through back siphonage and through pipe joints and holes in the pipe that the higher water pressure would normally keep out.

People trying to have show home landscapes in arid central tx summer conditions are wasteful. Xeriscape. You moved out there for the beautiful rugged hill country look. Let your landscaping reflect it.

Thanks Fear for adding the technical info. Good to know.

Sean - I have no answer. But I know that big lawns need to go away.

My parents have a lot out there. There must have been a busted water line or something. The neighborhood is not anywhere close to capacity.

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But I know that big lawns need to go away.

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well my thoughts are this, I think you should have every right to have a green lawn, but then you should have to pay outta the ass to have it. IMO water is way too cheap. I don't live in the hill country, I live in BCS, go to some of the nicer neighborhoods and you'll see water pouring down the streets in the morning from all the excess runoff from sprinklers.

My biggest issue is most of the state water plans call for using ED to take land to create more reservoirs. Which IMO if you gonna do that then watering lawns should be outlawed. I don't think it's right to take land to build reservoirs so that water can then be used to make grass look pretty.

Sean98 said:

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I'm still looking for a socially acceptable population reduction mechanism, and I'm all ears on any plan you might come up with.

Also, those houses use more water in 2-3 days than I use in a month!!

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a good old fashioned plague, stop protecting people that dont want to be protected (ie seat belt laws) or even a ban on having more than 3-4 offspring would all help out.

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My parents have a lot out there. There must have been a busted water line or something

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Just going off what NBU and City of NB have released. Haven't heard anything about a leak. And you're right - lots of room left to build, and thats the scary part. If this water issue was from irrigation...holy moly. Can you imagine when its built out? Not to mention all the grown NB will see after Veramendi.

Sean98 said:

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I'm still looking for a socially acceptable population reduction mechanism, and I'm all ears on any plan you might come up with.

Also, those houses use more water in 2-3 days than I use in a month!!

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Something had to have happened - 550k gallons is about 1.7 acre feet of water if my rough math is correct. That's a lot of water to have a sudden loss in the tank. If it was a high demand, you should have seen trends of incremental use over the last few days which would reflect in either drops in tank levels, increased pump useage to fill the tank or longer pump times to maintain tank levels.

I know NBU is doing some work on their system, don't know what stage they are in with their new pipelines. Wonder if they had either an issue on that front or needed demand and there is a flaw in the system that hits this neighborhood in the event of a high demand elsewhere.

And water is too cheap. There should be graduated pricing based on useage. I have no issue with somebody wanting a lawn that can actually be used, but that needs to be a financial choice.

Sell the water for what it is worth.

I'd be interested if the SCADA system was reading or reporting correctly.

And yes, water is too cheap.

ought1ag said:

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Sean98 said:

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I'm still looking for a socially acceptable population reduction mechanism, and I'm all ears on any plan you might come up with.

Also, those houses use more water in 2-3 days than I use in a month!!

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a good old fashioned plague, stop protecting people that dont want to be protected (ie seat belt laws) or even a ban on having more than 3-4 offspring would all help out.

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THIS! I blame AggieChemist and his damn CDC buddies for trying to stop our infections diseases. And NW80 for patching people up in the emergency room. and MD Anderson for finding ways for people to overcome cancer.

I also think kids should be like the Wisconsin "earn a buck" deer season premise. You get none. Until you earn the right to have one. ...and in no case can you have more than 2. Maybe you can buy the allotment from someone else like transferable landowner tags if your babies are really beautiful.

Conservation is something we (I) struggle with in my line of work. Utilities have to make money to pay for improvements and expansion but conservation does not pay the big bills. Most studies and water economist will agree the best way to "motivate" conservation is through price increasing, however clean potable water is a public "right" in state standards so its often difficult to implement. Sad thing is that 1500 gallons used/lost is no more than $4 out of each of those homeowners which when questions often results in the "So what I can afford it" type of response.

Not knowing a lot of details about the situation, something sounds very fishy about the whole situation to go through that much water so quickly. Its very possible that it is irrigation related 1500 gallons is the equivalent of roughly 125 minutes of irrigation which is very doable with a 1-3 acre irrigated landscape. I'll have to see if I still have my contact at NBU to get some more info as it may pan out some business for me.

I'm in Centex, not the Hill Country, but I've watered my yard twice in the last 9 months. I will likely water for the 3rd time tomorrow. My yard looks very nice.

I have a neighbor, if I could capture the runoff from her watering, I would never need to water my yard again and would have to mow much more frequently.

Makes me think about my great grandfather who had a hand dug well with about a 2 gallon bucket in front of his house. They probably went to the well no more than 3 times a day for drinking water, cooking water, laundry, bathing, etc.
6 gallons vs today's 275 gallon average. Its pretty eye opening.

Could we be approaching this? Ironically, they had a good population control in the movie!

Neches21 said:

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Makes me think about my great grandfather who had a hand dug well with about a 2 gallon bucket in front of his house. They probably went to the well no more than 3 times a day for drinking water, cooking water, laundry, bathing, etc.
6 gallons vs today's 275 gallon average. Its pretty eye opening.

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They probably also had a significantly shorter average life span, didn't have air conditioning, cooked over a cast iron stove, bathed sparingly, likely didn't wash clothes nearly as often (nor got them nearly as clean) and a host of other things that made life simply harder and not as enjoyable.

Give and take and all that.

Our water usage in Dallas last month:

11,700 for 6 people.

That's less that 2,000 per person per month, or 66 gallons per day per person.

Where in the hell is all that water going?

Dallas has graduated pricing:

For more information on how to calculate your water bill visit www.dwucalculator.com
Residential Usage Rates. (Per 1,000 Gallons). Effective October 1, 2016

Gallons Water
Tier 1 (0 to 4,000) $1.90
Tier 2 (4,001 to 10,000) $4.25
Tier 3 (10,001 to 15,000) $6.03
Tier 4 (15,001 and above) $8.55

Per 1000 gallons.

Deats said:

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Our water usage in Dallas last month:

11,700 for 6 people.

That's less that 2,000 per person per month, or 66 gallons per day per person.

Where in the hell is all that water going?

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probably the tub and toilet

I know where my water is going.


I meant the 1,300 gallons per day in NB.

Deats said:

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I know where my water is going.


I meant the 1,300 gallons per day in NB.

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sorry......i have a problem of not reading all the way through

That is at least 400% too low across the board IMO.

My RWD pays ~$7/1000g (we have high infrastructure and low population), the one next to me pays $9.21/1000g.

Not saying Dallas can't offer it cheaper because of density, just saying even at those graduated rates it's not nearly enough to incent conservation. Not even close.

something must be going on. here is the neighborhood.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7411988,-98.2488821,2896m/data=!3m1!1e3

outdoor related, notice the proximity to Dietz gun range.

Deats said:

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Dallas has graduated pricing:

For more information on how to calculate your water bill visit www.dwucalculator.com
Residential Usage Rates. (Per 1,000 Gallons). Effective October 1, 2016

Gallons Water
Tier 1 (0 to 4,000) $1.90
Tier 2 (4,001 to 10,000) $4.25
Tier 3 (10,001 to 15,000) $6.03
Tier 4 (15,001 and above) $8.55

Per 1000 gallons.

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I"m sure many places actually have it, problem is that it's just not expensive enough. $.00425 per gallon isn't enough to make 99.99% of people blink. When things are plentiful and cheap, useage goes up. Human nature.

3 day irrigation ban in Copper Ridge:

http://www.ksat.com/news/boil-water-notice-issued-for-copper-ridge-subdivision-in-new-braunfels

PFG said:

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3 day irrigation ban in Copper Ridge:

http://www.ksat.com/news/boil-water-notice-issued-for-copper-ridge-subdivision-in-new-braunfels

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the boil ban was rescinded a day after being issued.

I spoke with my dad, who has 40 years in fluid controls, and apparently NBU doesn't know how to calibrate and program theirflow controls properly.

Isn't the City of NB pretty much a CF?

ANY public run water system has the same problem...they are the largest consumer because of leaks, waste, running open hydrant to flush, etc.

And water isn't too cheap. It is the largest positive money maker that public systems have...continually move profit from there to other parts of the budget

Needed to add...not uncommon for the loss of water to be a third of the total pumped. "Good" utilities get it <10%

Copper Ridge has had water pressure issues for at least 4 years. About a year and a half ago they had plans for another 100 or so lots. It looked like it was a no go because NBU had concerns about supplying water. Fast forward to now and Copper Ridge is a few months away from opening the new phase with lots for sale. Looks like this might be an ongoing issue.

We had a slip and slide for my daughter's birthday party. Left the water running all day long. HTH

FearNoWeevil said:

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The boil notice goes into effect once the system pressure goes below 20 psi because of the high potential for the introduction of contaminants through back siphonage and through pipe joints and holes in the pipe that the higher water pressure would normally keep out.

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+1 In other words, they had a leak they could couldn't find.