Four families in Las Lomitas neighborhood finally have running drinkable water
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - Four families in southern Travis County finally have drinkable water running through their faucets after living without it for as long as 20 years.
People in the Las Lomitas neighborhood have relied on bottled water and non-drinkable water from a county-run spigot.
The county says it's working on an easement in the center of the property to make running a pipe through the development easier. Creedmoor-Maha Water Supply says they are designing a solution and the entire project will cost about $300,000.
It's been years in the making for Norma Vasques Escalante and her family of five. Since last Tuesday, she's been able to finally tell her kids they can drink water coming from their faucets.
"When you don't have something you really appreciate when you have it," Escalante said.
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Twenty years ago, the Las Lomitas neighborhood was promised an infrastructure, but developers left town without installing it. Each Saturday, Escalante's husband would haul hundreds of gallons of water on US 183 near Onion Creek and bring it back to their home for them to use.
"He would transfer water from the mobile tank to the stationary tank and it would take 4 to 5 mobile tanks to fill up the stationary tank," Escalante said.
Creedmoor-Maha Water Supply contracted pipes under the pavement, put meters in and inspected the water so it was good to go last Tuesday.
It wasn't easy. Escalante's family hasn't had safe drinking water for 15 years, and it came with a hefty price tag and would have been more expensive if it wasn't for Escalante's resources.
Travis County Commissioner Margaret Gomez says they're working to prevent this from happening to others in the future, but in the meantime, Escalante's family is one of four in Las Lomitas which has drinkable running water right now, since their area is easier to connect versus properties that are further away.
There is no timeline, but the water supply company says they are currently working on designing a solution while helping families little by little gain access to water.