Vernon Jackson says Tow Village property owners are glad to be out of the water utility business — and free of environmental compliance issues that regulators wanted fixed.

AKE BUCHANAN — In 1994, Vernon Jackson retired and moved with his wife from Katy to Tow Village, a small subdivision on the northern shores of Lake Buchanan in Llano County.

Jackson pitched in to help run the community's water utility system, which uses a single groundwater well to supply about 35 residences — despite being a stone's throw from one of the region's largest reservoirs. He trained to become a state-licensed Class D water operator, read water meters each month and responded to emergencies.

Jackson soon discovered trouble in paradise. Like many water utilities that rely on groundwater wells in this area of Llano and Burnet counties, Tow Village's water contains high levels of radionuclides — naturally occurring radioactive chemicals that are potentially harmful to public health.

Residents' water was deemed unsafe under radionuclide rules that were recently revised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Tow Village Property Owners Association couldn't afford to make the necessary improvements.

The solution? Tap into a proposed regional water treatment plant that will use surface water from Lake Buchanan to supply not only Tow Village but also several other lake communities that face water quality problems. This is just one of many regional projects in which LCRA has teamed up with local communities to improve inadequate water or wastewater utility systems, protect water quality and meet growing needs.

State's highest-ranking project

Larry Moyer and Tim Simon of LCRA inspect the Paradise Point Water Treatment Plant, which will be expanded to improve water quality of numerous communities.

WHAT ARE RADIONUCLIDES? Radioactive chemicals that are usually naturally occurring and found in drinking water. Typical radionuclides include: radium 226 and 228, gross alpha particle activity and beta particle activity. These are radioactive chemicals that can cause cancer and for which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) as part of the Safe Drinking Water Act. More: Radionuclide fact sheet from EPA.

The Lake Buchanan effort is notable for being the highest-ranking project ever considered by the state in the eight years it has administered a federal fund to finance water utility infrastructure improvements, said Tony Bennett, water supply technical specialist with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Water Supply Division.

In June 2003, state regulators thought so highly of this regional problem-solving approach that the Texas Water Development Board approved a $10.2 million package of no- and low-interest loans so LCRA could pursue it. (TCEQ ranks dozens of proposed projects each year based on factors such as population, health impact and regionalization benefits. TWDB then approves the funding for top-ranked projects.) The financing comes from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which was included in a 1996 amendment of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to finance infrastructure improvements, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Specifically, the project would expand an existing surface water treatment plant at Paradise Point to provide water to communities on the north end of the lake. It's part of a proposed regional project that includes building a six-mile pipeline to Tow Village on the west side of the lake, and another line to connect four communities on the east side of the lake: Council Creek Village, South Council Creek, Bonanza Beach and South Silver Creek.

Two other communities, Buena Vista on the southern edge of Lake Buchanan and Smithwick Mills on Lake Travis, are slated to benefit from secondary projects to address inadequate storage capacity, low pressure and poor water quality.

All told, these water systems serve a population of 1,371, and are expected to support a growing number of customers in the years ahead; population estimates show strong growth through 2030 for this region.

A cancer risk
Of the 4,500 community water systems in Texas, about 150 are in violation of regulations limiting one or more naturally occurring contaminates, including radionuclides and chemicals such as arsenic, nitrates and fluoride, Bennett said.

Long-term exposure to water laced with radionuclides — over, say, 20 or 25 years — could cause cancer, according to the EPA, which first began regulating radionuclides in 1978. It has strengthened the regulations in recent years.

"It's really a long-term health effect, and is potentially carcinogenic based on a long-term exposure. We want to guard against that risk by getting an alternative water source to these folks," Bennett said.

Free of the headaches
Tow Village resident Jackson said he and his neighbors are not overly concerned with the potential health risks, and he hasn't heard of anyone getting sick from drinking the water.

All the same, they are happy to be out of the public water utility business, despite having to pay higher water rates to fund improvements.

"I just grin ear-to-ear every month and write that check to LCRA. I'm so thankful to be out from under that," Jackson said.

As part of its effort to expand its utility services and improve the area's water quality, LCRA purchased the Tow Village system in December 2004. It also now owns the Paradise Point, Bonanza Beach and Smithwick Mills water systems.

Among those also supporting the project are owners of water systems that plan to hook up to the regional system and buy treated water from LCRA.

"I'll buy water wholesale from LCRA. I won't have to worry about the water quality and the water wells," said Jack Owen, the Austin developer who owns the Council Creek Village, South Council Creek and South Silver Creek water systems.

Under the plan, these systems — along with Tow Village and Bonanza Beach — would stop using low-quality groundwater and switch to treated surface water.

Finally, the project also will serve people who have inadequate water supplies and live adjacent to the proposed pipeline, but outside of these subdivisions. Several of these residents attended public meetings on the project and expressed a desire to tie into the pipeline, said Jeff Crawford, senior engineer and project manager for what LCRA is calling the North Lake Buchanan Regional Water System.

LCRA is testing polycarbonate membrane filter technologies that could be used to triple the capacity of the Paradise Point water treatment plant. It soon plans to take construction bids. If LCRA's Board of Directors approves the construction contracts this fall, the project would take about a year to complete, Crawford said.

Economics 101
LCRA's approach of creating regional systems to serve growing areas is supported by state water planners and regulators. In 2003, TCEQ adopted its policy to favor regionalization of water and wastewater systems to "ensure a long-term supply of safe water at affordable rates and by maintaining the quality of water in the state."

The idea takes advantage of simple economics. By investing in regional plants and infrastructure, the costs are spread to more ratepayers.

"As we achieve economies of scale we can provide better services, and at a better cost to the consumer," said Scott Ahlstrom, LCRA manager of Water and Wastewater Utility Services.

Other regional projects
LCRA is involved in a number of other regional water and wastewater projects. A few examples:

• West Travis County Regional Water System: In 1994, LCRA acquired the Uplands water treatment plan near Bee Cave in a distress sale after a developer went bankrupt. The plant is now integral to a regional system, known as West Travis County Regional Water System, and has been expanded to serve growing areas, including Bee Cave, whose residents had been served by wells and have historically suffered from poor water quality and lack of adequate supplies. This system supplies several new subdivisions, municipal utility districts (MUDs) and the Hill Country Water Supply Corporation, which LCRA purchased in January 2004.
• Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant: Last year, LCRA completed a $100 million project that included installing a 17-mile wastewater pipeline from Cedar Park to the Brushy Creek plant in Round Rock. The project allows the closing of lift stations that have been subject to chronic failures and overflows, improves water quality in Brushy Creek and protects the Edwards Aquifer. This collection system, owned by LCRA and operated by the Brazos River Authority, serves portions of Round Rock, Cedar Park, Austin and the Brushy Creek and Fern Bluff MUDs.
• Spicewood Beach Regional System: LCRA regionalized service for Spicewood Beach, Lakeside Beach, the Eagle Bluff subdivision and a Mable Falls Independent School District elementary school. This required expansion and improvements to the Spicewood Beach wells, decommissioning of the Lakeside Beach water treatment plant, and construction of transmission lines to interconnect the service areas.
• Connecting to existing treatment plants owned by others:
  • Sandy Harbor Water System: In December 2003, LCRA shut this community's water treatment plant, which provided water with trihalomethane levels that exceeded EPA limits. The community now receives treated water from a plant operated by the Lake LBJ MUD. (Trihalomethanes — or THMs — are a byproduct of the reaction between naturally occurring organic matter found in water and chlorine that is used to disinfect drinking water. These organic hydrocarbons can cause cancer in laboratory animals.)
  • Bridgepoint Water System: This community's two dozen homes suffered from water contaminated with high levels of radionuclides and fluoride. LCRA purchased the system and in June 2003 completed a water line under an arm of Lake LBJ to connect with the Kingsland Water Supply Corporation's surface water plant.
  • South Road Water System: LCRA shut the existing substandard surface water treatment plant and connected it to the City of Marble Falls' water system.
  • Glenlake Water System: LCRA shut the existing substandard surface water treatment plant and connected it to Riverplace MUD.

"When we take over most of these systems they are in pretty bad shape," Larry Moyer, LCRA superintendent of water and wastewater operations, said during a tour of several utility systems. "LCRA makes improvements to bring the systems into compliance."

Fred Martin, vice president of the Bridgepoint Property Owners Association, said he is relieved that professional water operators now are handling his community's water system.

"It's a positive in a lot of ways. One important thing is interruption in service is immediately dealt with. I can call LCRA and someone will be here in 10 or 15 minutes," Martin said. "Another thing, certainly, is the quality of water."

Boisseau is LCRA's Web editor.

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