Bastrop, Tx–With the city in the second year of a brutal drought with soaring summer temperatures and rising water demand, officials this week hope some relief may be within sight, not from the skies but from a shallow underground water bearing formation in Bob Bryant Park.
A promising test well in the alluvial aquifer was was completed June 21, Bastrop City Manager Mike Talbot told the city council June 23. A previous test well in the same formation underlying the city park a few weeks earlier proved a disappointment, yielding an average of some 113 gallons a minute.
City officials and enginerring consultants had hoped for a yield of some 300 gallons a minute or more. A second test well was ordered in the same vicinity and shows promise of better production, Talbot told the council.
Formal testing of the so-called Well 2 in Bob Bryant Park began June 22 and could take two weeks to complete, according to a report from consultant K*Fries & Associates. If all tests prove favorable the well could be a useful addition to Bastrop’s water production system by October, according to the same report. The cost of rushing the new well into operation remains to be negotiated, officials said.
Since last summer, when daily water demand in Bastrop reached 85 percent of production capacity for extended periods and water use limits were ordered, the city has carried out a number of test drilling operations, none entirely satisfactory so far. The new test drilling program has focused on sites on the west bank of the Colorado River because demand growth has been mostly in that part of the city in recent years.
At present all the city’s water wells are on the east bank of the river in shallow alluvial formations beneath Fisherman’s Park–essentially gravel deposits left by ancient river stream beds.
At the June 23 meeting, city council members appeared in agreement that putting new water production capacity on line is the most pressing need of the community at present.