A city 20 miles south of Austin has become one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, despite an alarming water shortage and scorching temperatures.
Kyle, Texas is down the road from town, about an hour north of San Antonio.
It enjoys the same humid subtropical climate as Austin, but unfortunately, residents say it lacks infrastructure to combat the heat.
Despite its heat issues, Kyle’s population has grown from 5,314 in 2000 to 62,500 in 2023, making it the second-fastest-growing city in the country.
A new pipeline is currently under construction to bring water to the community, at a cost of $250 million. Delays have hampered the project, however. Heat-related deaths, meanwhile, remain higher than ever, reaching a record 341 in Texas last year.
Kyle is located a few miles from Austin, about an hour north of San Antonio. The city is the second fastest growing in the United States, despite a severe lack of water.
A new pipeline is currently under construction to bring water to the community, at a cost of $250 million. However, delays have hampered the project.
“I’ve seen people completely faint,” Alex Stockton, a member of the Laborers International Union of North America who is leading construction crews drilling to lay pipes for a housing development in Kyle, recently told the Wall Street Journal.
” I fainted. “
He moved to Buda, a town just between Kyle and Austin, a year ago and found the heat extreme.
He told the newspaper that his team is allowed only 30 minutes of rest a day, a rule he ignores if he sees a colleague showing signs of heat exhaustion. He tells them to sit down, he said.
“A lot of companies don’t like that style,” Stockton says, as companies like Amazon and Tesla continue to move into the area.
“They come and say, ‘Why is he sitting there?’ I say, ‘I don’t know, so he’s not dying?’
The heat index, a measure that takes into account humidity, hit a record 118F in the Austin area in June last year, and 115F a few months ago.
In May, emergency calls in the region reached 125, double the number from last year, as the population continues to grow.
In May, emergency calls in the region reached 125, double the number from last year, as the population continues to grow.
Companies like Amazon, whose new sorting center in town is seen here, continue to expand into the region, putting pressure on already scarce water supplies.
“I had people who worked in factories or in an Amazon warehouse who were taking precautions and going to work with a big jug of water,” John Turner, medical director of four area emergency and urgent care centers, told the Journal.
“And they still ended up suffering from kidney failure.”
Meanwhile, housing projects continue to emerge to house the new residents, as the center opened in late 2020 and brought with it more than 200 jobs.
Stockton, for its part, is part of a wave of new arrivals that have arrived since 2020 – a particularly pronounced surge that has seen the local population grow from 45,700 to 62,500.
Amazon also recently opened a fulfillment center in Buda, in 2021, and Tesla its Gigafactory in suburban Austin in 2022.
This migration can be attributed to a demand for high-quality industrial space that has grown alongside these companies’ online sales, in a location that is not only subject to relatively low taxes, but situated to serve two separate metropolises.
Kyle’s strategic location between these two top-performing cities, along the I-35 corridor, has allowed it to become the second-fastest-growing city in the United States, behind fellow Austin satellite Georgetown.
As newcomers continue to arrive in search of lower taxes and more space, the community’s water supply is under strain.
Tesla opened its Gigafactory in suburban Austin in 2022 as newcomers continue to flock to the area in search of lower taxes and ample space,
Recently, the situation has become so dire that Kyle has been forced to purchase water from nearby San Marcos.
Last week, Mayor Travis Mitchell spoke to Fox Business about why he believes the city’s water supply is so limited.
“It’s a combination of several factors,” he explained.
“It’s climate change that’s producing a lot of heat and additional droughts. Droughts are longer and more frequent, that’s one factor.
“The second,” he said, “is just growth in general: more houses, more people, more gardens, more irrigation systems, more withdrawals from the water table.”
Speaking to the Journal, he said the city would adapt, citing restrictions already in place on lawn watering and the pipeline that he said will begin pumping water next year.
However, that timeline remains uncertain, after a project planned last year was already pushed back, partly because of the influx of residents, the people behind the costly project said.
Graham Moore, executive director of Alliance Water, explained to Fox the factors behind the delays: “Some of them are equipment specific… because we came out of the pandemic and had kind of a tight market on certain equipment.”
Members of the Hays County Emergency Services District 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 was growing at the same time, it took an “inordinate amount of time” to obtain the easements and property rights needed to lay the pipeline.
Meanwhile, the city is considering building a new plant at its water and wastewater treatment plant to bring treated water back to a potable level, as the Carrizo pipeline remains unfinished.
“We’re working to increase supply while reshaping demand and putting programs in place to do that,” Mitchell told the Journal.
“This new water supply through the (pipeline), while very important, is not the only way for us to increase our water supply.”
When completed, the pipeline will carry water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer, which itself spans 60 counties.
“Our current water supply is about 5.7 million gallons per day,” Kyle Water Services Director Mike Murphy said of the 20-mile connector.
“(The pipeline) will add another $1.7 million to that amount.”
The city remains 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 due to open last year, is expected to be completed next year
Meanwhile, a severe drought continues to hit the region, further threatening its water supply.
The city remains under Level 3 drought restrictions, after the city previously banned home car washing and the use of local water for construction projects.
In the spring, the city council approved a contract to purchase water from San Marcos, which will cost Kyle at least $274,000 a year.
Staff said the city likely won’t emerge from Phase 3 until fall 2024, as Mayor Mitchell has already announced 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 should worry about it,” Murphy told KXAN in June. “We now have enough water to carry out our daily activities.”
“And with these 1.7 million that will arrive in February, it will add to that.”
By 2027, when the pipeline capacity reaches 2 million gallons, everything will be fine, he said.
“By 2027, we’ll be in a very good position,” the mayor insisted. “It’s going to grow our water portfolio, which is what we’re trying to do right now in Kyle.”