As of mid-October 2026, Driftwood has no single drought rule. A house on a West Travis County Public Utility Agency connection can now run its sprinklers once a week. A house on Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation service is still under a posted hand-held-hose-only notice. A house on a private well answers to the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, which is still at its most severe stage.
Three notices in force on the same October week
The quickest way to see the split is to set each provider's current notice next to the others.
| Water source | Current status | What it means at the tap |
|---|---|---|
| West Travis County PUA | Moved from Stage 3 to Stage 2 effective October 15, 2026 | Lawn and landscape watering once per week on the address's assigned day, 6 to 10 a.m. or 7 to 10 p.m. |
| Dripping Springs WSC | Stage 4 notice still posted, effective May 23, 2025 | Outdoor irrigation by hand-held hose only; drip and automatic sprinklers prohibited; dedicated irrigation meters shut off |
| Goforth SUD | Stage II drought alarm declared | Voluntary irrigation twice weekly on assigned days, before 10 a.m. or after 8 p.m. |
| Wells under Hays Trinity GCD | Emergency stage, 40% curtailment district-wide, 30% in the Jacob's Well Groundwater Management Zone | Permitted, non-exempt wells must cut production; utility customers follow their utility's own rules |
WTCPUA's October 14 announcement sets the watering day by address. Under its drought contingency schedule, residential addresses ending in 1 or 3 water on Monday, 2 or 4 on Tuesday, 5 or 7 on Wednesday, 6 or 8 on Thursday, and 9 or 0 on Friday. There is no outdoor watering on Sunday. Dripping Springs WSC approved an amended drought contingency plan on September 21, 2026. That plan ties the corporation's own response to conditions at both WTCPUA and the groundwater district, and restrictions from either one can trigger measures for its customers. Two houses a few minutes apart on RM 150 can therefore sit under rules that loosened this week, rules that have been in place since spring 2025, or a pumping cap set by river gauges in Johnson City and Wimberley.
Why the groundwater Emergency stage will outlast the green
Driftwood saw fall rain, and the WTCPUA rollback makes it easy to assume the whole area is easing. The groundwater district runs on a different clock. Its drought stages follow two USGS stream gauges, the Pedernales River near Johnson City and the Blanco River at Wimberley, because those rivers are recharge features for the Trinity Aquifer. To drop out of a stage, both rivers must flow above the trigger for 60 consecutive days.
The district's September 2026 drought briefing shows how lopsided that can get. As of October 1, the Pedernales had logged 13 consecutive days above the Emergency trigger, and the Blanco had logged zero. The U.S. Drought Monitor had improved the district to D2, Severe Drought, yet staff recommended staying at Emergency with a 40% curtailment for October. The running 10-day average at Jacob's Well was 0.00 cubic feet per second. In effect, the slower river sets the pace. On the district's drought page, the gauge table dated October 13 still shows the Blanco below its Alarm trigger for 60-plus days. The same page estimates that 26 inches of rain would be needed to end the drought within six months and puts the chance of that at less than 6.5 percent.
The district states the gap between surface and aquifer plainly: parts of Hays County may have full ponds and lush landscapes while "the aquifer that feeds your well requires a longer time to catch up with the surface conditions." District-wide Emergency status began in September 2024, and the Jacob's Well zone has been in drought management since March 2024.
What the Emergency stage freezes, and what it leaves alone
The 40% figure gets the attention, but it applies narrowly. The curtailment is a cut from the authorized annual withdrawal of permitted, non-exempt wells. An exempt well is one that doesn't need a drilling or operating permit. To qualify, it must be registered with the district as exempt and used only for an exempt purpose. Many single-household wells fall in that category, and the district asks every well owner to conserve. The drought page asks residents to stop outdoor watering and turn off pool and pond pumps.
The bigger effect on property is the freeze on new capacity. Under the district rules amended effective August 6, 2026, the district accepts no new operating permit applications and no amendments to increase production during Stage 3 or Stage 4. No new well may be built in those stages except a replacement for an existing permitted well or a well for an exempt use. The board can grant variances only on narrow public-welfare or production-reduction grounds. From Stage 2 onward, groundwater pumped for a non-exempt use cannot fill or refill ponds.
For the acreage, small-ranch and event-minded properties that draw buyers to Driftwood, this changes the math. A property with an existing operating permit holds something a neighboring tract can't currently apply for. A property whose plans depend on a new permit or a higher pumping allowance has to wait until both rivers recover.
For a well home, the file and the pump are part of the price
Once the permit carries value, its paperwork does too. When a permitted well changes owners, the change must be reported to the district and a permit amendment application filed within 60 days. Permit holders report actual meter readings to the district quarterly. During drought they report monthly, and in the Jacob's Well zone they follow the reporting schedule under Rule 15. A buyer inherits that compliance history along with the well. Even an exempt well has a registration to confirm, and new well work requires advance construction notification to the district.
The equipment carries cost too. In March 2026, KUT reported that Jared Thompson of The Well Doctor was watching water levels in Wimberley and Dripping Springs closely. "The water level used to come all the way back up to about 500 feet when we had heavy rains. But now we're seeing it staying very low at around 660 to 690," he told the station. The same KUT story put pump lowering at about $1,500, a full pump replacement at around $7,500, and a deeper well at upwards of $75,000.
"You can't even sell your house if you don't have a reliable source of water."
Thompson made that remark to KUT in the same March report. The district's general manager, Laura Thomas, told the station that pumps are being lowered and wells replaced with deeper ones throughout western Hays County. On a well property, the static water level, the pump setting and the age of the pump say more about the next five years of ownership than the drought stage does.
The utility side has its own pressure points
Homes on a utility connection have different questions. At the July 28, 2026 Hays County Commissioners Court meeting, Dripping Springs WSC General Manager Rick Brown told the court that his customers want to irrigate and fill their pools, and that the corporation had been "doing an excellent job keeping it under the limitations placed upon us," according to the Hays Free Press. In the same discussion, Commissioner Walt Smith said the Driftwood golf course receives water through a living unit equivalent contract with the City of Dripping Springs, which in turn buys from WTCPUA. He added that every customer, residential or commercial, abides by the same curtailments in a drought. Water in this corridor often passes through more than one provider before it reaches a customer, and each provider in that chain can set conditions.
Getting connected costs money as well. Dripping Springs WSC lists a $600 meter-and-installation fee approved August 17, 2026 and effective September 1, 2026, plus an $8,614 capital contribution fee effective January 1, 2025. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's guide to finding a property's water provider notes that a property inside a water system's boundary may not have a meter available. It points buyers to the TWDB Water Service Boundary Viewer, the PUC CCN Viewer and the TCEQ Water District Map Viewer, and lists drilling a well, purchasing water and hauling water as options for properties outside any service area.
Questions to answer about any Driftwood listing
- Which source serves the house today: WTCPUA, Dripping Springs WSC, Goforth SUD, another system, or a private well? The TWDB Water Service Boundary Viewer searches by address.
- If it is a utility, what stage does that provider currently post, and is there an active meter, or only a boundary?
- If it is a well, is it registered as exempt or permitted with the Hays Trinity GCD, and is the paperwork current?
- For a permitted well, what does the meter-reading history show, and who will file the ownership change within the district's 60-day window?
- What are the well's last measured water level, pump setting and pump age?
- Does the plan for the property depend on a new permitted well, a new operating permit or more production? During Stage 3 or Stage 4 the district accepts none of those, though exempt-use wells and replacements of existing permitted wells are still allowed.
All of this is general information drawn from public rules and reporting, not legal, financial or engineering advice. Confirm the details for a specific property with the water provider, the groundwater district and qualified well and legal professionals.
If you're weighing Driftwood homes with different water setups, the team at Newton Residential Group can help you work out which provider, permit and well questions apply to each one before you commit. Contact Us when you're ready to compare them.
