Texas Town Gets Water Reprieve

Photo by Flick user by Big Grey Mare ~ Back--But Barely/Creative Commons

The Groesbeck Water Tower

You might recall the town of Groesbeck, a small community of just over 4,300 residents east of Waco. Like many small towns in Texas this year, Groesbeck has been struggling with how to supply its residents with water in the midst of record-breaking heat and drought. The town gets all of its water from the Navasota river, and by late fall the river was 44 inches below normal. In November, the Texas government said the town could run out of water in a few weeks. (It even made national news.)

Since then, things have turned around for Groesbeck. In late November, the town announced that they had literally bought a few more months of water. A three-mile pump was installed further up the river to bring in more water. And December rains have brought more relief, with over five inches falling last month.

Things have improved so much that the town has moved from Stage 3 to Stage 2 water restrictions, meaning residents can now water their lawns (under Stage 3 there was an outright ban). And that stopgap pipeline isn’t being used for now.

“We probably are safe until next summer which still, we still have a major problem,” the mayor of Groesbeck, Jackie Levingston, told Central Texas television station KCEN. The station reports that the town is planning to dig a well before then to ensure a steady supply of water.