Three West Texas Towns Build a Shared Water Supply

In the middle of a drought, the town of Lawn came close to running out of water.

Lawn’s few hundred residents rely heavily on surface water, capturing limited seasonal rainfall and runoff into Lake Coleman. But during one recent year, months of extreme heat and zero runoff left water levels critically low, forcing the town to extend its intake farther into the reservoir just to maintain its water supply.

At one point, it nearly wasn’t enough.

“We hit the bottom of the intake…we were almost out of water,” said Roger Coxe, Director of Water Works for the City of Lawn.

Lawn’s aging water treatment plant was failing, and the maintenance costs were increasingly unsustainable for a town of its size.

Rather than rebuilding on its own, Lawn collaborated with the nearby communities of Tuscola and Buffalo Gap—all in Taylor County and the Region G water planning region—about a shared solution: connecting to Abilene’s regional water system.

“Buffalo Gap, Tuscola, they already got their water from Abilene, but they got it indirectly,” said Kirt Harle, Principal Engineer at Jacob & Martin, who helped Lawn find a solution. “It was at that point that the three entities started collaborating and came up with the idea to share in a project that all three can benefit from.”

Instead of each town building and maintaining its own separate infrastructure system, they decided to pursue a system that allows multiple communities to access and share a larger, more reliable water supply.

“Lawn couldn’t afford it on their own,” Coxe said. “Going together, now that made it work.”

Today, the three towns share infrastructure, costs, and maintenance—dividing responsibility across communities that have long operated as single systems.

Regional collaboration in the Jim Ned Valley didn’t start with this project. For years, the towns have supported each other and shared resources when needed.

“Everybody that works in the water department at their town is on the volunteer fire departments and the EMS, so we’ve all worked together for years anyway,” said Coxe. “If I need something at Lawn, Buffalo Gap or Tuscola will help out. And the same way, if they need something, we’ll loan them something if we got it or go help them.”

Now, that same cooperation is helping secure a more reliable water supply.