Residents in Austin’s Colony in far East Austin say water that can run brown from their taps is forcing them to buy home treatment systems and replace appliances while paying monthly water and sewer bills dominated by base charges.
The complaints center on water quality and cost in the subdivision near Hornsby Bend, where homes are outside the City of Austin’s Austin Water service area and instead receive water from the for-profit Texas Water Utilities, which serves multiple small service pockets across 32 Texas counties. Residents described chalky taste, bitter odor and occasional discoloration, including episodes in which water from the faucet appears brown, and said the problems began immediately for some newcomers and have continued for longtime homeowners. “That was the first sign that we knew we had to get something installed,” said Tyler Croft, resident of Austin's Colony.
Austin’s Colony water is drawn from a local well and from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, a source associated with mineral-heavy groundwater that can produce “hard” water with elevated calcium and magnesium. Hard water is generally not treated by regulators as a public-health threat, and it is not regulated as such by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, but residents say it affects daily use and shortens the lifespan of plumbing and appliances. Croft said he spent about $5,000 on softening, filtration and reverse-osmosis systems to make his household water “acceptable,” and other residents said dishwashers and water heaters have repeatedly failed or become unusable.
The water complaints are intertwined with the neighborhood’s rate structure. Texas Water Utilities charges Austin’s Colony customers a $59.39 monthly base fee for water and a $79.19 monthly base fee for sewer service—more than seven times Austin Water’s base water charge, residents said. Croft’s February bill totaled $221.79, with less than $40 attributed to the water he actually used, while resident Richard Franklin said his February bill totaled $161.16 even though his water usage cost less than $14 and sewer usage less than $3, with additional “system improvement charges” added for infrastructure work. Franklin and Croft, along with other Texas Water Utilities customers statewide, have filed formal protests over some system improvement charges with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the state agency that regulates water and wastewater rates.
The dispute has also become a public issue for prospective buyers. An 8-by-4-foot sign placed near the neighborhood entrance off Webberville Road and near Gilbert Road and Texas 969 reads, in block letters, “ASK ABOUT THE WATER BEFORE YOU BUY HERE,” reflecting residents’ efforts to warn newcomers and pressure decision-makers. Residents said the sign drew a complaint and that Travis County’s Transportation and Natural Resources Department told the resident who placed it to remove it from the right of way, prompting plans to relocate or replace it on private property.
Texas Water Utilities says it has taken steps to improve water softness in Austin’s Colony and disputes that older hardness data reflects current conditions. Tim Williford, vice president of operations for Texas Water Utilities, said the company’s 2024 water quality report, which averaged three samples at 260 milligrams per liter of hardness, “doesn’t align” with new measurements after changes made in 2025. The company said it spent about $6.3 million in 2025 to replace aging pipes and purchase more water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, and it reported four internal samples taken in February averaging 50 milligrams per liter of hardness. Residents noted that Texas Commission on Environmental Quality-verified samples from those sites are not expected until 2027.
Long-running frustration in Austin’s Colony predates the recent upgrades, with residents describing years of appliance replacements and corrosion that they link to hardness and intermittent discoloration. “The water quality has always been terrible,” said Richard Franklin, resident. “It ruins the plumbing. It ruins everything. The water’s hardness is at the point where it eats away at your skin,” said Richard Franklin, resident.
The complaints in Austin’s Colony arrive as Central Texas continues to navigate water-related infrastructure pressures alongside weather extremes, including flood risk during heavy storm periods even as drought conditions persist, as previously reported in Austin faces weeklong active weather pattern; storms ramp up toward a potentially soggy weekend. Residents said their next steps will continue through the Public Utility Commission’s protest process and through local organizing, including expanded buyer-warning signage and requests for clearer, independently verified water-quality data and rate justification.
