America’s second-fastest-growing city, too hot to go outside, faces water shortages

The Texas city is the second fastest growing urban area in America – even though it’s too hot to go outside in the summer and face water shortages.

During the outbreak, consumers flocked to Kyle, Texas where the water source, an underground water source, is dwindling, leaving more than 67,000 residents struggling to get water.

Before the start of summer, temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees in the city — which sits 20 minutes outside of Austin — as nearby creeks and waterholes dried up due to the city’s severe drought.

Hays County, where the famous city is located, will experience severe drought at least one quarter of every year by 2040, according to ICE Sustainable Finance.

The situation has become so bad that last summer residents were prohibited from washing their cars at home and using local water for construction purposes, while municipalities had to reduce the use of water and hoses.

Many, if not all residents rely on hoses to lower the foundations of their homes to avoid cracks and stay warm.

Stephanie McDonald, 62, who bought a house in Kyle in 2015, told The Wall Street Journal that she is constantly worried about its foundation because of the lack of water.

During a city council meeting this spring, McDonald argued that there is not enough water for all the new housing authorities that are continuing to build in Kyle.

Last year, Kyle homes and businesses needed an additional 4,382 gallons of water per minute during peak periods, compared to just 571 gallons in 2021, a city engineering report found.

Although water resources are at their lowest, utility bills are burdening the city and residents.

From 2021 to 2022, the minimum water bill for families in Kyle grew to an average of 6.8 percent per year, according to city budget reports.

In April, the city bought water rights from nearby San Marcos, drawing water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer.

Mayor Travis Mitchell has been talking about the water crisis in Kyle and said restrictions have helped the city save.

‘Right now, we’re trying to expand our water service because of the rapid growth of our city,’ Mitchell told KXAN.

In addition to rapid growth and water scarcity, the city has been plagued by dangerously high temperatures that have forced residents to go outside in the early morning or evening.

Combined with the high temperature, Kyle also suffers from excessive humidity which makes it difficult for the body to heal itself.

Last year, the temperature in Austin reached 118 degrees, and this year it dropped to just 115 degrees.

In May of this year, emergency personnel responded to 125 heat-related calls – more than double the number of the previous year.

“I’ve had people who work in factories or in an Amazon warehouse take precautions and go to work with a big bucket of water and they end up with no kidney problems,” John Tuners , medical director of four emergency and emergency centers in the area, he recalled.

Many suffered renal failure from extreme dehydration, while others suffered from rhabdomyolysis, a near-fatal condition that causes muscle tissue to break down.

New pipelines are currently under construction in the city and are scheduled to be completed around February 2025.

The current water supply is about 5.7 million liters per day. [The pipeline] it will add 1.7 million to that,” Mike Murphy, Kyle’s director of water services told the agency.

Murphy estimated that by 2027 the $250 million pump will provide the city with 2 million gallons of water.

The new pipe should not only provide water for Kyle, but also for San Marcos and Buda for at least 50 years.

Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, thinks it will run out of water soon.

Mace predicted that the pump could run out of water in 10 to 20 years, as other areas in San Antonio and Austin are determined to get a supply.

The city is also looking to recycle wastewater for commercial and agricultural use, while it needs new housing to fill the landscape with less water needs, according to Mitchell.

‘We don’t have a choice between moderate or slow growth,’ Mitchell told The Wall Street Journal.

Under Texas law, municipalities are restricted when it comes to banning construction, Mitchell said.

The mayor added that because of this, the city is attracting developers before talking to them about Kyle’s operation.

Some citizens are taking matters into their own hands. Bob Gregory has begun desalination, or removing salt and minerals, from brackish water until it is finally sold next year.

‘It’s only a matter of time before the price of water goes up to reduce the price I pay for desalination,’ Gregory, owner of Texas Disposal Systems, said.

Amazon’s new 308,000-square-foot sorting facility recently opened in Kyle, along with a nearby Tesla mega-factory.

An Amazon spokesperson said the new facility has an internal temperature of 74 degrees and that no workers have had heat-related illnesses since 2023-2024.

A Sprouts Farmers Market and several dollar stores will open in Kyle, while XCharge Technologies, an electric vehicle charging company, recently opened a craft facility there.

Although the city’s revenue has quadrupled to $65 million from more residents and businesses, some people have been left bewildered by the large population.

Local construction workers working to build new homes have been hit hard by the treacherous heat.

‘I have seen people completely black. I behaved badly,” said Alex Stockton, who supervises the construction crew at Kyle.

His workers are allotted 30-minute breaks during shifts, but Stockton makes sure to monitor his workers and allow them to sit down when needed.

‘Most companies don’t like that approach.

They come and say, “Why is he sitting there?” I’m like, “I don’t know, so he’s not dead?”,’ Stockton said.

Bill Curran, who moved into a new house built in Kyle in 2022, fled Austin after experiencing the heat and the influx of people in the city.

Curran said his 45-minute commute increased to an hour and he was able to exercise early in the morning for obvious safety reasons.