Water shortage strains booming Texas town

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The city of Kyle, Texas, is among the fastest-growing municipalities in the U.S. but as its population has surged, its water supply has struggled to keep pace despite efforts.

Kyle is located between Austin and San Antonio and has seen its population boom in recent decades from 5,314 in 2000 to 62,500 in 2023. Coupled with drought and high temperatures, that rapid growth has placed a premium on water, which Kyle has had to purchase from nearby San Marcos to help meet the rising demand.

«It's a combination of multiple factors,» Kyle Mayor Travis Mitchell told FOX Business in an interview. «It's climate change, which is producing a lot of heat and extra droughts. The droughts are longer and more frequent, so that's one. The second is just the growth in general – more homes, more people, more yards, more irrigation systems, more drawing down on the aquifer.»

Mitchell said a third factor contributing to the city's water shortage is the delay of a new pipeline that will bring water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer to Kyle. While it's expected to come online early next year, the city's growth has itself contributed to the delays.

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A new water pipeline will bring water from the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer to Kyle, Texas, though the project has faced delays. (Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Graham Moore, executive director of Alliance Water, told FOX Business that there have been several factors causing delays to the project.

«Some of them are equipment-specific delays as we came out