KEMPNER, Texas — Extreme heat and drought has put many Central Texans under water restrictions. Those serviced by Kempner Water Supply Corporation have been under a level 4 restriction as of Monday.
”We are at this point because of the lake levels,” said General Manager of Kempner Water Supply Corporation, Bruce Sorenson.
“We have an intake structure that starts having difficulty getting water at the elevations."
Kempner Water Supply gets their water from Stillhouse Hollow Lake, and from service areas across Central Texas.
Including the Robison Ranch, home of Camp Cowboy in Kempner, who partly relies on Kempner Water Supply to help water their horses.
”We’ve got a lot of creeks and ponds at our place, that we water our horses out of, that are drying up,” said co-owner of Robison Ranch, Lane Robison.
"We’re having to pipe water in to full up water troughs.”
A Level 4 water restriction means no non-essential water use and a 30 percent reduction overall in water use.
With over 70 horses drinking 10 to 15 gallons of water a day, the folks at Robison Ranch want to know how much water is too much for them.
”Even just tapering back a little bit on the water with horses can be detrimental,” Robison said.
“You can get them to start having colic and a lot of other digestive problems just from not having enough water.”
Luckily, livestock doesn’t necessarily fall under the restrictions for non-essential water use like irrigation does, but it could bring massive bills with restrictions in place.
”We go to a tiered rate. With those restrictions in place, a tiered rate, the more water you use, the more you pay per thousand.”
While they understand and respect the water restrictions, Robison Ranch has no choice but to use thousands of gallons a week.
”For folks that are getting upset that they can’t water their lawns, I understand that,” Robison said.
“However, for us, we’ve got all these animals that depend on us for the water.”
This is water that is piped into the ranch, because their normal sources are drying up.
