Georgetown looking to sell parts of water service area

GEORGETOWN, TEXAS (KXAN) — The city of Georgetown is looking to sell portions of its municipal water utility to manage future growth and costs.

Georgetown’s Water Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) currently serves a 400-square-mile area, providing water service to 74,000 customers. A CCN grants a utility the exclusive right and responsibility to deliver service within a designated geographic region.

Of the 400-square-mile area, 40% of water customers live outside Georgetown city limits, including parts that service Burnet and Bell counties. Currently, the city invests $414.9 million dollars in water capital improvement projects that serve areas outside Georgetown’s city limits and ETJ.

Georgetown City Manager David Morgan said that servicing that much territory is causing “significant strain” for the city.

“We have little control over development outside of our city limits and especially outside of our ETJ,” Morgan said. “To better plan for our system, and also to manage rising costs, we’re exploring the sale of our of a portion of our water utility.”

In the proposed sale, about 11,500 customers out of the 74,000 would be transferred. Morgan said those not transferred will most likely not see their water bill change.

“We don’t think that rates will increase as rapidly as we’ve seen recently, and we think we’ll have more rate stability long term,” Morgan said.

According to data provided by the city, Georgetown’s current service area population is expected to grow over 900,000. The data also shows that without the sale, Georgetown will not have enough water to meet the projected demand, having a 98,611 acre-feet year deficit. With the sale, Georgetown will still not have enough water for the projected demand, but that deficit reduces to 29,957 acre-feet year.

“The reality is that the era of cheap water is over. All of this additional water is more expensive, even the lower amount,” Morgan said.

The city has an interactive map of the affected areas and more detailed information on the topic. That map is provided below, or you can access that here.

Georgetown will offer to transfer portions of its CCN to neighboring cities first — like Killeen, Salado, Florence, Jarrell and Liberty Hill. They would have until September 30th to accept the offer.

Once an agreement is made, it will need to be approved by voters in an election in May 2026. The Public Utility Commission of Texas will also need to approve any transfer as well.