Hays County, coalition will get their 290 water line & West Travis water system

Under the terms approved by the Board, LCRA and the coalition have until Jan. 17 to negotiate the purchase and sale agreements

LCRA's Hwy 290 water line serves several thousand
north Hays County customers and supplies water
to the Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp.

Note: The persistence of a coalition of Travis County cities, Hays County and other entities seems to have paid off. We should soon see the details of the sale of the West Travis water system, which includes the Hwy 290/north Hays County water pipeline, to the Coalition of Central Texas UDC. Hays County Commissioner Ray Whisenant, vice president of the coalition's board of directors, has promised that the purchase price and other details involving the 290 system (heretofore shrouded in official negotiating secrecy agreements) will be made public once the ink dries on the sale. If Whisenant makes good on his promise, many other questions hopefully will be answered relating to the county's short & long term plans for the 290 line.

Send your comments and questions to the LCRA at http://www.lcra.org/about/overview/contact.html, to Commissioner Whisenant at ray.whisenant@co.hays.tx.us, to the CCTUDC at contact@texansforpublicutilities.org, or click on the "comments" at the bottom of the story

Here's a portion of a press release distributed late last week by the Lower Colorado River Authority.

(Nov. 17, 2011) – LCRA's Board of Directors Wednesday unanimously authorized General Manager Becky Motal to negotiate the sale of the West Travis County Regional Water and Wastewater System to the Coalition of Central Texas Utilities Development Corporation.

Under the terms approved by the Board, LCRA and the coalition have until Jan. 17 to negotiate the purchase and sale agreements.

Service area of the West Travis system
Click on map to enlarge

"The Board's decision represents an opportunity for local communities to exercise their wishes," said Motal. "This decision is in the best interest of the communities served by the West Travis county systems and LCRA."

Wednesday's decision was an important step in LCRA's efforts to sell its retail water and wastewater systems. The Board decided in November 2010 to seek buyers for the systems, pointing out that a water utility made up of multiple systems does not leverage the strengths of LCRA as a regional supplier of raw water and wholesale power.

LCRA purchased and developed community water systems in the Hill Country and along the Colorado River, mostly in the past 10 to 15 years, and has since invested more than $300 million to improve the systems' infrastructure. However, despite cutting costs and raising rates, these systems do not cover their costs and are subsidized by more than $3 million a year.

The Board Wednesday also considered authorizing LCRA to negotiate the sale of 12 systems in the Hill Country and six in LCRA's southeast service area to Corix, an international company that provides service to more than 220 water and wastewater systems that serve 650,000 people in North America.