‘We had 24 hours of water left’: City of Blanco bumps up to Stage 6 water restrictions after supply issues

BLANCO, Texas (KXAN) — City of Blanco Mayor Mike Arnold said the city’s water reserves have refilled enough to serve the city for the next few days under current Stage 6 water restrictions. He attributes the tightened restrictions to maintenance issues the city’s water supplier is facing.

Friday, the city issued an emergency notice on its website about heightened water conservation efforts.

The restrictions prohibit all outdoor watering and industrial water use. Arnold said the Real Ale Brewing Company and Milam and Greene Distillery are two businesses the city asked to halt operations to conserve water.

Milam and Greene Distillery posted Friday it would be closed due to the water restrictions.

Arnold said the city is monitoring the situation every day and hopes to have the issue resolved soon.

He said the city has worked with the Texas Department of Emergency Management to work out contingency plans if water problems persist.

If the need arises, Arnold said the city’s former fire station will become a temporary water station. There, residents can pick up pallets of bottled water and water for livestock. Arnold said a tanker of non-potable water will be on deck as well.

Arnold said plans to deliver water to some residents have also been made.

“We got a list of all the shut-ins in town and volunteers who can deliver them water if need be,” Arnold said.

City says water supply issues to blame for low supply

Arnold said the city’s water woes are two-fold.

He said the city’s own water plant which purifies water has been offline for renovations for more than a year. He stressed that even if the plant was operating, water would still be scarce given low lake levels.

In the meantime, Blanco has been purchasing water from the Texas Water Company, formerly known as the Canyon Lake Water Service Company.

Arnold said he was told at 8 a.m. Friday by TWC that it’s tank of water for Blanco was near zero and the city’s other tanks would be depleted soon.

“At one time, we had 24 hours of water left,” said Arnold.

He said the TWC is now working to repair some equipment which could take several days.

“They had a filter go down in their processing plant. It’s the kind of thing that takes quite a long time to find parts and repair. So they’re not operating at full capacity,” Arnold said.

KXAN reached out to the Texas Water Company for a statement about these repairs.

Arnold said his last update from the water supplier came around noon Saturday. He said reserves have been replenished enough to last for several days depending on demand.