Hill Country Ranch Estates Water Supply Corporation (HCRE) (CCN 12241) is comprised of a small, rural community located approximately 5 miles east of Kerrville, Texas in the state’s sprawling green Hill Country. HCRE has only 19 connections, making it a very small system by practically all standards, and with an average median household income of $48,690, this disadvantaged community has struggled to fund needed improvements to its drinking water system.
HCRE faced years of water restrictions due to a consistent decline in the Trinity aquifer’s water level, and in 2022, the water level dropped beyond HCRE’s well pump capability. This well failure led to water only being pumped to residents’ homes from 6 to 7:30 in the morning and 7 to 8:30 in the evening, narrow windows of time in which to accomplish many household chores such as cleaning the dishes, washing the laundry, brushing teeth, and bathing. In July of 2022, Kerr County Emergency Management Director Dub Thomas solicited assistance from the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, who delivered bottled drinking water and non-potable water. Still, water deliveries such as these and trucked water deliveries are not a long-term solution for HCRE.
Fortunately, HCRE applied and has been awarded a grant for $250,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture – Rural Development Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants (ECWAG) program to drill a new well, replace one of HCRE’s storage tanks, and install new booster pumps and associated piping. However, the community has been unable to implement this funding due to a matter of land ownership.
HCRE’s pump house and pressure tanks are located in part on private property; as a result, the Department of Agriculture is unable to fund this portion of the project as they do not provide funding on private property. Not to be deterred, HCRE negotiated with the landowner to do a land swap, in which a Surveyor is to measure the metes and bounds of the existing property lines and recommended a comparable trade with the landowner. However, the cost of the survey and subsequent land swap was $4,000, funds that HCRE would be hard-put to raise.
HCRE could have submitted a grant application to the Texas Water Development Board for this funding, but the long lead time for many grant programs constitutes a high barrier to participation for many small, rural communities who struggle to meet the rigorous technical, financial, and engineering requirements of these programs. Similarly, financing from banking institutions at reasonable interest rates requires a credit rating that many disadvantaged communities do not possess.
This is where the Community Catalytic Fund comes in. With seed funding generously provided by the Texas Well Spring Fund and technical assistance support provided by Communities Unlimited and the Texas arm of the American Water Works Association, WFX is pleased to provide a grant in the amount of $4,000 to HCRE for the survey and land swap. With the land swap having been executed and the landowner having deeded the property to HCRE, HCRE’s pump and well house are now located on public property, and the Department of Agriculture’s funding can finally be utilized for improvements.
“This miracle could not happen without WFX providing the $4,000 for Kerr County’s official contest Surveyor, who knew how to wrangle the local signatures and complete the process with the County,” says Steven Walden, a consultant on the project.