Some areas in Comal County placed in emergency water stage

COMAL COUNTY, Texas – Update Friday, June 30: All Texas Water Company customers in Comal County are asked to continue limiting their water consumption to indoor usage only due to an Emergency Water Condition. According to a press release, water storage facilities are beginning to recover, but are not yet at sufficient levels. All lawn watering and landscape irrigation are suspended until further notice. Conditions will be reassessed on Monday.

Original, June 29: The lack of rainfall over an extended period has led to strict water restrictions being imposed across our area.

Residents in parts of Comal County are urged to conserve water as every drop becomes increasingly valuable.

“We continue to see draw-downs in our storage continuously, regardless of the day, regardless of the time of day and it just keeps on creeping lower and lower to critical levels where we have to simply issue an indoor-use-only type of mandate,” said Larry Jackson, director of customer service and communications for The Texas Water Company.

The TWC announced Wednesday they are moving parts of their service area from stage 2, which allows residents to water their lawns once a week every other week, to an emergency drought stage until further notice.

“If all of our customers simply adhere to the watering rules and the restrictions and the schedules, we wouldn’t have these types of situations at all,” said Jackson.

Jackson said during the summer months, about 70% of the water they produce for drinking, cooking and bathing is spent on watering the grass and landscape irrigation.

John Berry, a Canyon Lake resident, said he’s received the indoor-use-only mandate from the TWC as well as his homeowner association about water conservation.

“Pray for rain, pray for rain, and try to abide by the rules that they have set for the water conservation,” said Berry.

The TWC said the mandate is only impacting certain areas of Comal County.

“So it’s basically the northern side of the Canyon Lake area down Highway 281 into Bul Verde up until the Comal-Bexar County line and then moving down 46 towards Boerne to where Blanco Road intersects with Highway 46,” said Jackson.

The following service areas are moving to an Emergency Water Stage:

Until further notice, water consumption is limited to indoor-use-only for residents.

Residential, commercial, wholesale, and industrial customers should NOT engage in landscape irrigation until further notice.

Bulk Water Haulers are prohibited from pulling water from hydrants until further notice.