The Bee Cave Bee

Effective July 1, 2018 MANDATORY two day a week watering restrictions will go into effect for WTCPUA customers

Watering will only be permitted from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to midnight according to the following schedule:
 
Odd Numbered Addresses: Wednesdays and Saturdays
Even Numbered Addresses: Thursdays and Sundays
Commercial (including large landscapes and HOA common areas): Mondays and Fridays

 
The announcment went on to say:

"PUA staff will be regularly monitoring water usage for compliance with the above policy. We sincerely appreciate your assistance in managing our water resources.

 
Since the WTCPUA (PUA) is delivering potable water that meets the requirements of the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA) for under a penny ($.01) a gallon, “High” water bills are caused by voluminous consumption. Some tips are offered below to assist in managing water use during the warm weather season:

 
1. Have your irrigation system checked by a professional including valves, sprinkler heads, and controller programming to ensure the system is watering in accordance with your desired time frames. Also, it is recommended that controller programming be reviewed after power outages since these systems may reset to factory default schedules.
2. Make sure that toilets are not running or that any other leaks are not present. Leaks are evident on the premises if all water is shut off and the meter continues to spin.
3. Make sure no unauthorized water use is occurring on your property.
4. Manually read your meter daily and revise water usage as appropriate.
5. If you have an AMR meter, we can provide data logs of usage up to 15-minute increments to assist with consumption management. There is a $50 charge for these data logs.

The PUA’s water rates are comparable to the City of Austin at 10,000 gallons a month, which is typical consumption for a residence with no irrigation usage. The City of Austin is higher at 20,000 gallons and 30,000 gallons.  These monthly water bill comparison calculations are shown on the PUA web site, under News and Notices, Recent News. The PUA does not have taxing authority and has to recover all of its costs through rates, unlike other surrounding utilities who subsidize their rates with property taxes.  Therefore, when taking this information into consideration, PUA rates are comparable. For further information, we encourage customers to review the presentation entitled, “History of WTCPUA and Comparison to Alternatives” located on our web site, under News and Notices, Recent News.

 
Beginning at the June 21, 2018 Board Meeting, we will begin our FY2019 annual budgeting process, culminating in a new budget starting on October 1, 2018. As part of this process, we are conducting a new Impact Fee study including updating our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). New Impact Fees are planned for Board consideration at our August meeting. We are also performing a rate study that will be complete by the end of 2018. We are confident that we will be able to provide continued rate stability resulting from operational cost reductions achieved over the past two years.

 
We had our third Customer Academy at the PUA office on Friday, June 8, 2018. Customers listened to a presentation on the history of the PUA and budget and rate development. Customers also toured our water and wastewater treatment plants. Participants stated this event was very informative and assisted in understanding PUA operations. Our next Customer Academy is scheduled for December, 2018.

 
We would like to encourage customers to visit our new web site, wtcpua.org, which was implemented in April, 2018. The new web site is more functional, easier to navigate and find information, and has new features such as customer alerts. Also, we have added a page of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers to assist customers with understanding PUA Operations.

 
Finally, to facilitate more timely billing and assist our customers with water consumption management, Customer Service has worked to reduce billing cycle times from four weeks to two weeks. We plan to implement this improved billing procedure with August, 2018 customer bills. Additional communication on the new procedures will be sent to customers in July.

 
Thank you for your support as we work to provide safe, reliable water and wastewater services to our customers."

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