{"id":212399,"date":"2026-03-20T03:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212399\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T03:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:26:19","slug":"fifth-waterline-break-in-pflugerville-system-resolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212399\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth waterline break in Pflugerville system resolved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water is flowing again into Lake Pflugerville after a fifth waterline break was fixed late Wednesday, the city announced<\/a>. But Pflugerville’s water system remains depleted after a series of leaks in recent months, and water customers remain subject to serious restrictions.<\/p>\n

Lake Pflugerville is the primary water source for the city. It\u2019s human-made and fed entirely by water pumped from the Colorado River.<\/p>\n

Construction crews discovered the fifth break on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the city of Pflugerville said Wednesday officials could not take interviews as the city was \u201ccompletely focused on handling the current water situation.\u201d Officials said the break was \u201ceasily accessible\u201d and \u201cquickly located.\u201d<\/p>\n

The break was the latest in a string of leaks that have depleted the city\u2019s water supply by hundreds of millions of gallons since September.<\/p>\n

A ‘strenuous’ water break <\/p>\n

The city\u2019s raw waterline that runs from the Colorado River to Lake Pflugerville experienced breaks in September, November and January. <\/p>\n

But the city did not implement water restrictions until a fourth, more severe break was discovered in early February. It look crews more than ten days to locate the break, according to city documents<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Public Utility and Engineering Director Matt Rector said at a March 10 city council meeting that identifying the fourth leak was \u201cstrenuous to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to excavate down 20-plus feet on each side of the creek just to try to figure out where the leak was,\u201d he said. \u201cThat took us a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rector said as the lake was being depleted from the break, customer demand was rising due to an unseasonably warm February. Hundreds of millions of gallons were lost.<\/p>\n

The city responded March 1 by entering Stage 1 restrictions, which limited outdoor watering to one day a week.<\/p>\n

But the extent of the water loss did not become clear until a March 3 report found the fourth waterline break caused the lake to have \u201csignificantly less water than we had originally thought,\u201d Rector said. The city wasn’t able to install a bypass line to reroute the water flow for another week.<\/p>\n

City says ‘turn off taps’<\/p>\n

On March 4, Pflugerville Mayor Doug Weiss declared<\/a> the city was in a “disaster water shortage emergency\u201d and moved the city to Stage 3 water restrictions. He said engineering projections show the city\u2019s water supply could dip below the elevation of the city\u2019s existing raw water intake structure by late April, “threatening the city\u2019s ability to withdraw and treat sufficient water to meet essential health, sanitation, and firefighting needs.”<\/p>\n

The city will remain under Stage 3<\/a> restrictions until Lake Pflugerville reaches a depth of 19 feet, which could take more than two months. As of Wednesday, the lake was 17 feet deep. <\/p>\n

Under Stage 3, Pflugerville residents are not allowed to use water outdoors unless it\u2019s to water a home\u2019s foundation to prevent cracking. They also aren\u2019t allowed to irrigate lawns, fill swimming pools or wash cars. Additionally, the city is recommending folks start catching rainwater; reuse water for hand-washing; take shorter showers; and delay laundry and dish cycles.<\/p>\n

If customers don’t conserve, stricter restrictions could be imposed, officials said. <\/p>\n

Customers that don\u2019t comply will receive a \u201cformal warning\u201d or a fine ranging from $1,500 to $2,000 per occurrence, according to the city.<\/p>\n

At the March 10 meeting, Police Chief Willie Richards said the department had \u201cmade contact\u201d with 117 businesses and residential water customers to educate them about the new restrictions, but so far had not issued any citations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe willingness to say \u2018Yes, we understand,\u2019 and coming alongside us and helping us be successful in this endeavor has been exceptional,\u201d Richards said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

A graphic shared by the city<\/a> shows customer water usage has gone down by over a million gallons per day since the restrictions were put in place. <\/p>\n

What’s next <\/p>\n

Ahead of the latest waterline leak, the city agreed to activate a local well that is typically only online during peak demand in the summer. Pflugerville is also purchasing water from the Manville Water Supply Corporation to go directly to customers.<\/p>\n

The city has long-term plans<\/a> to increase water capacity to the area. A project to add a new pump station that will add a 1.25 million gallon storage tank to the water system’s capacity is in the design stage, but the city has not yet announced when construction will begin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Water is flowing again into Lake Pflugerville after a fifth waterline break was fixed late Wednesday, the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,62781,83176,83177,8885,83178,83179,73019,75836,83180,27],"class_list":["post-212399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-break","tag-can-i-get-fined-for-not-following-water-restrictions","tag-mayor-doug-weiss","tag-pflugerville","tag-pflugerville-water-disaster","tag-pflugerville-water-main-breaks","tag-pflugerville-water-restrictions","tag-pflugerville-water-shortage","tag-stage-3-restrictions","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}