WILSON COUNTY, Texas – What started as a KSAT story investigating brown water in two Wilson County neighborhoods has since concluded in the creation of two new state laws.
The investigation began in October 2024 as a call from neighbors in a Wilson County subdivision who said their water was brown and had been flagged for E. coli.
KSAT went to the Arrowhead Subdivision and found dark brown sediment-filled water and rust-colored filters.
“Nobody drinks this water,” said Arrowhead resident and advocate Carrie Wilcoxson. “We had people getting sick. I got sick. Pets were getting sick so much that people in this neighborhood pulled their pets off of the water that is supplied out of this well. Pets have now transitioned to bottled water too.”
This spurred a six-month investigation into Central States Water Resources (CSWR)-Texas, the private company that owns the water wells for Arrowhead and Shady Oaks in Floresville, as well as a few other neighborhoods in Texas that also have brown or overly chlorinated water.
After KSAT’s stories, CSWR-Texas admitted they removed sand filtration systems on the wells when they bought them in 2021, saying the systems were old and not functioning well.
When the water continued to come out discolored or smelling of strong chlorine, neighbors Carrie Wilcoxson and Michelle Schraner began emailing their complaints to state lawmakers.
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini (TX-21), whose district includes Wilson County, answered and filed four bills.
Wilcoxson spent days in Austin testifying on the bills and finally saw two of them make it to the finish line.
SB 1662 holds companies accountable
The first of these bills to become law is Senate Bill 1662, which addresses a situation in which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is called in to investigate a water company due to a customer complaint.
Before the bill was drafted, if a water company was under investigation, the state could give a non-specific date before asking a company to conduct water tests.
SB 1662 would mandate that TCEQ give a company no more than 24 hours notice before it tests the water.
“I made a complaint on September the 17th. That investigator did not come out to test the well until nine days later,” Wilcoxson told KSAT. “In that time, the water company had time to essentially clean up the water.”
Wilcoxson told that story while testifying to the state Senate committee.
“The water had been flushed and had been shocked with chlorine,” Wilcoxson told the committee.
“Wilson County residents and local officials raised concerns that this allowed systems to treat their water temporarily before inspectors arrived, potentially skewing test results,” Zaffirini said.
Since that testimony, the bill sailed through both the state Senate and House.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law Friday.
SB 1663 empowers consumers with information
The next bill, Senate Bill 1663, will now require companies and the TCEQ to alert people sooner if their water is contaminated.
SB 1663 is a direct result of the original situation in the Arrowhead subdivision that prompted KSAT’s first story.
“There was E. coli in our water supply distribution system, which had been present for at least four days, and they had not notified us,” Wilcoxson said. “So, this bill will require the water company to provide notification.”
SB 2497 got close
The other bill Wilcoxson and Zaffirini fought to pass had support yet ran out of time for its final two readings on the floor.
“We worked so hard on that bill,” Wilcoxson said.
SB 2497 would have given the state the ability to force underground water companies like CSWR to install filtration systems if efforts they’d already made were not working.
Right now, all they can do is recommend the installation of a filtration system.
SB 2497 would have made Texas the second state in the nation to allow the state agency to mandate companies to do that.
While it didn’t make it this session, there is a possibility for the bill to be picked up next session.
“Hopefully Sen. Zaffirini can pick it back up,” Wilcoxson said.
Wilcoxson hopes it one day becomes law, saying, “It wasn’t me and just my neighborhood. It was the other consumers that I’m now aware of that are also struggling across the state,” she said.
CSWR-Texas’ response to both bills, sand filtration systems
After the bills passed, KSAT reached out to CSWR-Texas for a response.
“We have always welcomed oversight from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and fully support efforts that protect public health and ensure water quality,” CSWR-Texas said in response to SB 1662. “We do not anticipate any major changes to our current operations as a result.”
In response to the passing of SB 1663, the company viewed the new legislation as a “positive step.”
“This new law reinforces the importance of rapid communication, and we view it as a positive step toward strengthening trust and ensuring that all Texans have access to safe, reliable and environmentally responsible drinking water,” CSWR-Texas’ statement said, in part.
CSWR-Texas then delivered news to KSAT that the Arrowhead and Shady Oaks subdivisions have been waiting for: the possibility of installing new sand filtration systems.
That ran consistently with something Wilcoxson said she was told: “I was informed by a TCEQ representative that our particular well, CSWR had applied, they have submitted an application to reinstall a sand filtration system back on our well,” Wilcoxson said.
While KSAT is waiting on confirmation of that from TCEQ, we asked CSWR if it would now install a sand filtration system.
The company said in a statement: “While the polymer systems we installed was intended as a cost-effective solution, we acknowledge it hasn’t matched the performance of the previous sand filtration system from years ago. We’ve been actively evaluating a range of alternatives – including the potential installation of new sand filtration systems. While a final decision is still being assessed at this time, we remain committed to finding the best long-term solution.”
When asked if CSWR plans to do the same for other similarly affected communities across the state, the company was noncommittal.
“In each community, we continue to actively evaluate the most effective and financially responsible solutions – including treatment enhancements, infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement, and other targeted improvements,” CSWR-Texas’ statement said, in part.
Work left to do
While these new laws serve as encouragement for those affected, there is still a steep hill to climb.
To the shock of customers across the state, CSWR-Texas just applied to raise customers’ rates for the third time since taking over the wells in 2021.
News of the higher rates sparked outrage in the small, rural communities throughout Texas, who already feel they cannot drink water CSWR-Texas provides.
Some may be priced out of their homes because they might not be able to afford the price of their undrinkable water.
While Wilcoxson and other neighbors have vehemently protested and the state’s decision has been pushed back, she does not feel confident that customers will come out on top.
“This is not a luxury, water is life. This is a big deal so it should be taken seriously by everybody,” Wilcoxson said.
The two new laws are small steps forward to ensure clean water is possible for all Texans.
Previous coverage of this investigation:
