A city 20 miles south of Austin has become one of the fastest-growing in the United States, despite an alarming lack of water amid scorching temperatures.
Kyle, Texas is located at the end of the city road, about an hour north of San Antonio.
It has the same humid subtropical climate as Austin, but unfortunately locals say it lacks the infrastructure to combat the heat.
Despite its heat-related problems, Kyle’s population has grown from 5,314 in 2000 to 62,500 in 2023, making it the second-fastest-growing city in the entire country.
A new pipeline is currently being built to bring water to the community, at a cost of $250 million. However, delays have hampered the project. Meanwhile, heat-related deaths remain higher than ever, reaching a record 341 in Texas last year.
Kyle is located down the road from Austin and about an hour north of San Antonio. The city is the second fastest growing in the U.S., despite a distinct lack of water.
A new pipeline to bring water to the community is currently under construction at a cost of $250 million. However, delays have hampered the project.
“I’ve seen people completely pass out,” Alex Stockton, a member of the Laborers International Union of North America who leads construction crews drilling to lay conduits for a housing project in Kyle, said recently. The Wall Street Journal.
“I fainted.”
She moved to Buda, a town located between Kyle and Austin, a year ago and discovered that the heat is extreme.
He told the paper that his crew only gets 30 minutes to rest each day, a rule he ignores if he sees a coworker showing symptoms of heat exhaustion. He tells them to sit down, he said.
“A lot of companies don’t like that style,” Stockton said, as companies like Amazon and Tesla continue to set up shop in the area.
“They come to me and ask, ‘Why are you sitting there?’ I say, ‘I don’t know. So you don’t die?'”
The heat index, a measure that takes into account humidity, hit a record 118 degrees in the Austin area in June last year, and 115 a few months ago.
In May, emergency response calls to the area rose to 125 – double the number from last year – as the population continues to grow.
In May, emergency response calls in the area rose to 125 – double the number from last year – as the population continues to grow.
Companies like Amazon, whose new sorting center in the city can be seen here, continue to set up shop in the area, putting a strain on the already low water supply.
“There were people working in factories or an Amazon warehouse who were taking precautions and coming to work with a big jug of water,” John Turner, medical director for four urgent care and emergency centers in the region, told the Journal.
“And they still ended up with kidney failure.”
Meanwhile, housing developments continue to spring up to accommodate the newly arrived residents, with the center that opened in late 2020 bringing with it more than 200 jobs.
Stockton is part of a wave of new arrivals since 2020 that has seen the local population grow from 45,700 to 62,500.
Amazon also recently opened a distribution center in Buda in 2021, and Tesla opened its Gigafactory outside Austin in 2022.
The migration can be traced back to a demand for high-quality industrial space that has increased along with online sales by such companies, in a location that is not only subject to relatively low taxes but is situated to serve two cities.
Kyle’s strategic location between these two high-performing cities, along the I-35 corridor, has made it the second-fastest-growing city in the U.S., behind another Austin satellite in Georgetown.
As newcomers continue to seek lower taxes and more profitable real estate, a strain has been placed on the community’s water supply.
Tesla opened its Gigafactory outside Austin in 2022, as newcomers continue to flock to the region in search of lower taxes and ample space.
Lately the situation has gotten so bad that Kyle has been forced to buy water in the nearby town of San Marcos.
Mayor Travis Mitchell said Fox Business last week why he thinks the city’s water supply has been so depleted.
“It’s a combination of multiple factors,” he explained.
‘Droughts are longer and more frequent, that’s one of them.
“The second,” he said, “is just growth in general: more houses, more people, more gardens, more irrigation systems, greater use of the aquifer.”
Speaking to the Journal, he said the city will adapt, citing restrictions already in place on lawn watering and the pipeline he said will begin pumping water sometime next year.
That timeline remains in doubt, however, after one scheduled for last year was already delayed, in part because of the influx of residents, said the people behind the costly project.
Graham Moore, chief executive of Alliance Water, told Fox of the factors driving the delays: “Some of it is equipment-specific… as we came out of the pandemic and had a bit of a tight market for some equipment.”
Members of the Hays County Emergency Services Districts and Kyle and Buda Fire Departments watch as a helicopter prepares to drop water on a wildfire during an excessive heat warning in August 2023.
He added that because Kyle has been developing more and more at the same time, it took an “inordinate amount of time” to obtain the easements and property rights needed to lay the pipeline.
While this is happening, the city is considering building a new plant at its water and wastewater treatment facility to return treated water to a potable level, as the Carrizo pipeline remains unfinished.
“We’re working hard to increase supply while simultaneously reshaping demand and implementing programs to that end,” Mitchell told the Journal.
‘That new water supply (via the pipeline), while very important, is not the only way to increase our water supply.’
Once completed, the pipeline will bring water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which spans 60 counties.
“Our current water supply is about 5.7 million gallons per day,” Mike Murphy, Kyle’s water services director, said of the 20-mile connector.
‘(The pipeline) will add another 1.7 million to that figure.’
The city is currently still under Level 3 drought restrictions, after the city already banned home car washing and the use of local water for construction. The pipeline, which was scheduled to open last year, is expected to be completed sometime next year.
Meanwhile, a severe drought continues to plague the region, further threatening its water supply.
The city remains under Stage 3 drought restrictions, after the city already banned home car washing and the use of local water for construction projects.
In the spring, the city council approved a contract to buy water from San Marcos, costing Kyle at least $274,000 annually.
Staff have said the city likely won’t exit Stage 3 before fall 2024, as Mayor Mitchell has already laid out plans for a $99 million sports complex that he says will attract more residents, as well as hotels and restaurants.
“Water will always be a concern, (but) I don’t think we need to worry about it,” Murphy told KXAN in June. “We have enough water now to do our daily activities.”
“And with these 1.7 million arriving in February, that will add to that.”
By 2027, when pipeline output increases to 2 million gallons, things will be looking up, he said.
“We’ll be in pretty good shape by 2027,” the mayor insisted. “This is going to increase our water portfolio, which is what we’re trying to do right now in Kyle.”
