Frequently Asked Questions & Guidance Videos

for Water Use Survey and Water Service Boundary Viewer


Frequently Asked Questions

Water Use Survey

Is the Water Use Survey required and when is it due?

  • Yes, it is required by Texas State Law (Section 16.012(m) of the Texas Water Code and Texas Administrative Code 31 TAC §358.5) to complete the survey for any entity that has received it. The completed survey is due 60 days after receipt. Letters notifying recipients are mailed in late December and the online survey is available by the first business day in January, so the due date is set as the first business day in March.

What are the criteria for determining who receives a survey?

There are two types of surveys available each year: Municipal and Industrial. Annually, the TWDB surveys approximately 7,000 water systems and industrial facilities in the state. This number represents roughly 4,500 municipal and 2,500 industrial water use surveys.

  • Municipal Water Use Surveys are required of all active public water systems that are a community water system type as determined by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). These systems can be found on the TCEQ Texas Drinking Water Watch (DWW). Other water systems and commercial/institutional-type facilities that may not be on the DWW (often wholesale-only systems) may also be surveyed, particularly if groundwater is pumped or a significant volume of water is used.
  • Industrial Water Use Surveys are required by manufacturing and mining water users that annually use more than 10 million gallons of water, or use a significant volume of water for the industrial sector for a particular area of the state (i.e. small facilities in rural areas that make up a significant portion of a county's industrial water use). Steam-electric power generating plants are also surveyed regardless of volume. Because the Water Use Survey Program has a long history, some water systems or industrial facilities may have been missed or not surveyed in the past. However, staff attempts to include all water systems or industrial facilities that meet the above criteria.

If a system/facility already reports water withdrawals to the other governmental entities (such as the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality), local groundwater conservation districts, subsidence districts or water wholesalers, then why is it necessary to fill out the annual Water Use Survey?

The Water Use Survey is intended to collect a comprehensive view of groundwater and surface water use across the state for water supply planning. While the volumes reported to other entities may be identical to what is reported in the water use survey, the local reporting provides only a partial picture of water use geographically and by source. Resources do not currently exist to coordinate the collection of water data between all agencies, districts, and authorities involved.

Is this the same as the TWDB's required Water Conservation Plan Annual Report or the Water Loss Audit?

No, the Water Use Survey is separate from the Water Conservation Plan Annual Report and the Water Loss Audit, although all are administered by the TWDB and a number of questions are the same or are very similar. Though some water systems may be required to fill out the Survey, Report, and Audit in a given year, the criteria for all three are different. Some systems may fill out only one, two, or all three of the forms. The online applications were developed to streamline your data entry and reporting and to improve data collection and analysis. When the Water Use Survey data is entered and submitted online, certain common fields auto-populate into the Water Loss Audit and the Water Conservation Annual Report.

Are all survey questions required or are some optional?

The survey requires that all questions be answered to the best of the system's or facility's capabilities. If questions do not apply, or are unknown due to a system's billing limitations, please make note of this in the comment section.

What do we need to do if our survey is returned as incomplete?

Surveys are considered administratively incomplete if questions are left blank with no notation indicating that the question does not apply or cannot be answered. Until the survey is submitted with the missing information, the survey is not considered complete for the purposes of TWDB financial assistance and water-right application requirements. Please contact Survey staff if there are questions regarding missing information.

How do I determine which aquifer my water well pulls from?

Please reference the Map of Major Aquifers. If further assistance is needed, please contact Water Use Survey Hotline phone number at (512) 463-7952.

Water Use Estimates

How much is an Acre-Foot?

An acre foot equals 325,851 gallons which is an amount of water sufficient to cover one acre with one foot of water.

Where does the TWDB get this data and how are the water use and pumpage volumes calculated?

To quantify the annual water use estimates, the TWDB compiles information received from water use survey responses and analyzes secondary information sources for non-surveyed water use categories (irrigation, livestock, oil and gas mining, and rural domestic purposes). Annual water use estimates are reported for municipal, manufacturing, mining, livestock, and irrigation by water source and geographic location. More information and definitions of each water use category are available here: Water Use Category Definitions

  • Irrigation: Annual water use estimates are developed by applying a calculated evapotranspiration-based "crop water need" estimate to reported irrigated acreage from the Farm Service Agency. These estimates are then adjusted based on surface water release data from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and comments from groundwater conservation districts, irrigation districts, and river authorities. Estimates are available at planning region, county, basin, and aquifer. Irrigation water use estimates (prior to 2003) were based upon five-year irrigation surveys conducted in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service. More information on this process may be found on the Irrigation Water Use Estimates webpage.
  • Livestock: Water use estimates are calculated by applying a water use coefficient for each livestock category to county level inventory estimates from the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service.
  • Manufacturing: Water use estimates are developed through the TWDB’s annual Water Use Survey.
  • Mining: Water use estimates are developed through the TWDB’s annual Water Use Survey and oil and gas wells and water use data from FracFocus.
  • Steam-Electric Power: Water use estimates are developed through the TWDB’s annual Water Use Survey.
  • Municipal: Water use estimates are developed through the TWDB’s annual Water Use Survey of public water systems (the volume of water taken into the water system, minus water sales to other water systems and large industrial facilities). Municipal use includes also domestic rural use that are calculated by applying a statewide average gallon per person daily to estimated rural population who are relying on private wells not served by any public water systems.

How is the Gallons per Capita Daily (GPCD) calculated?

  • Net Use allocated to the Water User Group (WUG) in gallons, divided by a Population Estimate, divided by 365 days. Net Use is defined as the volume of water taken into the water system, minus water sales to other water systems and large industrial facilities. For specific information regarding the calculation of GPCD, please contact the Water Use Survey Team by telephone at (512) 463-7952.

If a utility is listed with a high GPCD, does that mean that they use too much water?

  • TWDB estimates are for total municipal water use, defined by the TWDB as water produced by utilities for use not only in homes, but also in commercial and institutional establishments. This includes retail, lodging, eating and drinking places, and various types of services: professional, legal, medical, financial, educational, in addition to government, and specialties such as regional air transportation centers and professional and college sports venues. Larger cities with a greater concentration of employment in such services and which provide such services to more than a local demand base will have a higher water use per permanent resident. This does not mean that those residents are wasteful in their personal use of water.
  • Other factors that affect per capita use may include:
    • Variations in regional climates,
    • Population and building density,
    • Regional economic conditions,
    • Quality of water supplies in a given region,
    • Extent and effectiveness of local water conservation programs, and
    • Rates of unaccounted for water in a given distribution system (e.g. leaks from aging distribution infrastructure).
Texas Water Service Boundary Viewer (TWSBV)

What is the definition of a community public water system (PWS)

According to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ), a community public water system provides potable water and is a “public water system which has the potential to serve at least 15 residential service connections on a year-round basis or serves at least 25 residents on a year-round basis (https://www.tceq.texas.gov/drinkingwater/pws.html).

Why was the TWSBV application developed?

The TWDB developed the TWSBV application to facilitate the collection of digital maps for all community PWS retail water service areas in the state of Texas. This is the first complete map of the 4,500+ PWS in the state.

This map is a valuable resource for data research, and it aids in answering questions such as which PWS serves a population or supplies water to a specific address.

The TWDB requests that all active community public water systems provide their most recent service area boundaries alongside their annual water use survey submission. Authorized PWS contacts use this mapping tool to update and verify their service area boundaries annually. This cooperation makes it possible to develop a high-resolution digital map of the most up to date PWS service area boundaries.

The USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program under Cooperative Agreement No. G17AC00016 grant funded the development of the TWSBV application.

How is TWDB intending to use these maps? Are there other use cases?

Some of the uses of the TWSBV application are:
INTERNAL (TWDB) CURRENT USE
The TWDB utilizes TWSBV extensively during its development of annual population and gallons per capita daily (GPCD) estimates and in the development of state water plan projections. Characteristics of a PWS' service area support determining:

  • population served.
  • existing developed/undeveloped areas.
  • potential build-out of the area.
  • locations of special populations including prisons.
  • locations of the existing infrastructure by overlaying satellite imagery (assists with infrastructure planning and review).
  • domestic/rural population.
  • areas with future water needs.
  • seasonal water usage in different precipitation zones.
  • inter basin transfers.

EXTERNAL CURRENT USE

  1. Used to provide technical support to utilities. It is the quickest reference to learn all about the utility characteristics (via water use survey (WUS) and drinking water watch (DWW) to learn their water source, use and pop served, etc.).
  2. To develop a GIS database and reporting tool to improve the delivery of water data and PWS information collected by the State to the public as part of the Texas Water Use Data Workplan funded by the USGS.
  3. Used to find schools and daycares within their service boundary that TCEQ’s Lead and Copper rule requires lead sampling.
  4. Used for direct access to annual water use survey data for each PWS. This helps them to review reported pumping data vs WUS data.
  5. Used to review water outage data (water emergency and needing to find closest PWS neighbor); and dealing with complaints from the public. With customer address, TWSBV can quickly determine which water system provides them with water. In the past users would have to either look at multiple viewers (CCN, Districts, Source Water Assessment) to find a water system or create a map project in house, then download the data from multiple sources.
  6. Used to align with Census blocks for Environmental Justice metrics to target enforcement mandates of 50% towards environmental justice requirements for PWSs.
  7. Used for assessing PWS water quality impacts on pregnancy/birth related outcomes across the state.
  8. Used in a study assessing which specific communities lacked access to safe drinking water across the US.
  9. Used in the creation of a provisional national map of water service area boundaries.

This is not an exhaustive list and TWDB staff will update it as new user cases as they discover them. If there is a user case that has not been listed, please contact the TWSBV administrator at WSBViewer@twdb.texas.gov.

Where does the draft boundary data come from?

The TWDB created the predecessor to TWSBV application through a research grant for the TWDB in 2009. They created this layer using a conglomerate of data sources, including governmental and self-reported boundaries. The TWSBV application provides authorized water system personnel a starting point to verify or update boundaries for their retail water service areas. The PWS review date displays the last time a PWS representative submitted updates or verification of their boundary in the TWSBV application.

Who is responsible for developing and maintaining this tool?

The Water Use and Planning Data Department at the TWDB is responsible for collecting and maintaining the boundary data in the TWSBV application.

How often do public water systems (PWS) update their boundaries?

The water use survey will prompt PWS representatives to update or verify their boundaries annually. The application will be open from January through July every year with the survey cycle. During that time, PWS representatives will submit any updates or verification of no change in the boundary to the application for review by TWDB staff. Once approved, it is visible to the public. When the water use survey team closes their application, editors will no longer be able to make updates. Each PWS’s boundary will display the last updated (or PWS verified) date.

Why are there missing boundaries?

The TWSBV application does not initially have draft boundaries for all PWS within the state. While TWDB has made the best effort to include a boundary for every PWS, some did not have enough information available to develop an initial boundary for each PWS personnel to review. TWDB staff conducts outreach to PWS representatives to add their boundary during the editing period (January-July).

Why do some PWS boundaries appear to overlap?

While service areas should never overlap (i.e. only one utility can be serving each connection) some boundaries initially developed do overlap, for instance if they have dual CCNs and their PWS representatives have not verified their service areas. TWDB staff will work with PWS representatives to verify areas of retail service and remove overlaps throughout the year.

What does "water service boundary" mean?

For this application, the definition of a water service boundary is a boundary that includes all areas the PWS provides water service to retail customers, including residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial customers with retail connections. Please note that the current service boundary might cover smaller or larger areas than your current CCN boundary. Please see the questions below for further explanation on water service boundary definition

What are the differences between the retail service boundary in TWSBV and Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) boundary maintained by Public Utility Commission (PUC)?

The PWS boundaries found in TWSBV are retail service areas currently served by the PWSs and self-reported from authorized PWS representatives and they can change overtime as water service areas expand. A Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) gives a retail public utility the exclusive right to provide retail water or sewer utility service to an identified geographic area which the Public Utility Commission (PUC) establishes through the application and petition process. The PUC requires a CCN holder to provide continuous and adequate service to the area within its CCN boundary. Therefore, the current retail service boundaries could be smaller or different than the CCN boundaries approved. The TWSBV application displays CCN boundaries as a reference to validate the retail service boundaries submitted by PWS representatives. For more information about CCNs and how to apply for them, please visit https://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/water/utilities/gis.aspx.

Will updating the PWS service area boundary in the TWSBV application require updating the utility‘s CCN service area?

No, the purpose of the PWS boundaries found in TWSBV is to capture changes in their service boundary overtime, and the changes do not have impact on their CCN boundaries. However, if a PWS would need to update their legal CCN boundaries, they must go through the Public Utility Commission by applying for a change. For more information about CCNs and how to apply for them, please visit https://www.puc.texas.gov/industry/water/utilities/gis.aspx.

How should PWSs manage projected service areas they plan to serve in the future?

PWSs should not include areas their PWS does not currently serve at the time of verifying or editing in TWSBV (they can include those areas in the next years’ boundaries or once the PWS starts providing retail water service).

Should PWSs include their wholesale customers?

No. The intention of this application is to collect retail water service boundaries. TWDB staff will ask public water systems the PWS provides water on a wholesale basis to update their own retail water service boundary individually.

Should PWSs include areas they currently provide wastewater service or hold a wastewater CCN for?

No. The current application only collects retail drinking water customers' data. PWS representatives should only include retail water service areas.

Should PWSs include any wholesale customers that could become retail in the future?

No, PWS representatives should not include wholesale customers until they annex or acquire them, and they become retail water service customers.

Should PWSs include any of our emergency backup customers?

No.

Why are some PWS's water system boundary incorrect?

While TWBD staff make every effort to provide users with accurate draft boundaries for editing, it is not always possible to do so. TWDB staff asks PWS representatives to review and make necessary changes to the boundaries annually. PWS representatives should review, edit, or resubmit boundaries annually to reflect any change or no changes that have occurred.

Is the information provided a security concern?

The information PWS representatives provide to the TWSBV application is not a security concern. They report the geographical where they provide retail water service. TWSBV does not collect information on transmission, storage facilities, or any other sensitive geographical information.

Do PWSs need to do anything if the boundary information in TWSBV is still accurate?

If the boundary on file is still accurate, PWS representatives still need to submit the current boundary. This will update the "PWS review date". The "PWS review date" informs the public, TWDB staff, local, national, and state agencies of the last date the PWS verified the boundary.

Who can register to edit boundaries? And what is the registration process?

To be able to edit a service area boundary for a PWS, the representative must be a registered and authorized user associated with the water system through the online water use survey. Editors can enter TWSBV through a link on the initial water use survey page as well as when they complete their survey. They can also directly access the TWSBV application through the site: TWSBV application. For more information on how to register for the online water use survey, watch: Requesting Access to Surveys.

Once you are registered, we recommend you review the Editor User Guide for getting started. This guide will explain the tools of the application, how to edit or draw a boundary and how to upload a shapefile. Besides reviewing the editor user guide, maps or other relevant geographical information can aid in editing and drawing the boundaries.

What does a PWS representative do if there is no boundary for their PWS in TWSBV?

If the PWS does not have a boundary, the status field will display ‘No Polygon". When that PWS representative selects the PWS with no polygon, the TWSBV application will zoom to the principal county served (as recorded by the TCEQ). The editor will be able to zoom to their service area using the tolls in the editor toolbox.

For more information about how to create a new boundary for your water system please see the Editor User Guide for detailed instructions.

Can a PWS submit boundaries with overlaps?

Boundaries submitted with overlaps, should include a comment explaining the nature of the overlap to aid in TWDB review. It is the goal of the TWSBV application to eliminate overlaps.

Please see the Editor User Guide for further information on the overlap tools and tips to remove overlaps.

What does a PWS do if they need to make updates, but the application is not open for editing?

If the water use survey is not open, the PWS representative can still send in updates for their boundary. They will send any updates with any relevant information to WSBViewer@twdb.texas.gov

Where does a user send additional questions?

Users should send any questions not addressed in these FAQs to the TWSBV administrator at WSBviewer@twdb.texas.gov or (512) 463-6867.

Guidance Videos

Water Use Survey

The guidance below on the Water Use Survey and Texas Water System Boundary Viewer Applications has been broken into short videos covering specific topics. These may be viewed individually on an as needed basis, or all together for users to become acquainted with the applications.

The "ID" column indicates the recommended viewing order if all videos will be watched together, and is intended to mimic the flow of data in the application.

Additionally, users may sort the table by clicking any of the column headers or use the search box to filter video titles by a certain keyword.

Clicking a hyperlinked title will open a viewer where a user may click the play button and begin watching the video. Buttons for closed captioning, volume, and full screen mode display in the bottom right hand corner of the viewer when the cursor is hovered over the video player. Clicking the browser's "back" button will return a user to this page.

ID Title Length
1 Registering Account Okta 4m 37s
2 Requesting Access to Surveys 1m 37s
3 Adding & Entering Self-Supplied Groundwater Source Data 3m 37s
4 Adding & Entering Self-Supplied Surface Water Source Data 3m 23s
5 Adding & Entering Self-Supplied Reuse Source Data 3m 07s
6 Adding & Entering Purchase Source Data 2m 24s
7 Sales 1m 58s
8 Connection Location 1m 10s
9 Water System Information 1m 46s
10 Submitting & Saving 1m 27s
11 Changing Account Information 1m 31s
Texas Water Service Boundary Viewer (TWSBV)

The guidance below on the Texas Water System Boundary Viewer Application has been broken into short videos covering specific topics. These may be viewed individually on an as needed basis, or all together for users to become acquainted with the applications.

The "ID" column indicates the recommended viewing order if all videos will be watched together, and is intended to mimic the flow of data in the application.

Additionally, users may sort the table by clicking any of the column headers or use the search box to filter video titles by a certain keyword.

Clicking a hyperlinked title will open a viewer where a user may click the play button and begin watching the video. Buttons for closed captioning, volume, and full screen mode display in the bottom right hand corner of the viewer when the cursor is hovered over the video player. Clicking the browser's "back" button will return a user to this page.

ID Title Length
1 Registering Account Okta 4m 37s
2 Requesting Access to Surveys 1m 37s
3 Signing into the Texas Water Service Boundary Viewer As Editor 4m 45s
4 TWSBV Editor Orientation Training Video 4m 17s
5 Editor Tools: Saving and Submitting Boundaries No Changes Required 1m 38s
6 Editor Tools: Adding a Newly Active PWS 3m 00s
7 Editor Tools: Downloading Your Provisional Service Area Boundaries 1m 10s
8 Editor Tools: Uploading a PWS Boundary 3m 17s
9 Editor Tools: Editing an Existing Boundary 4m 07s
10 Editor Tools: Creating a Newly Active PWS or Adding to an Existing Boundary 3m 55s
11 Editor Tools: Removing Part of the PWS with the Clip Tool 4m 26s
12 Editor Tools: Reverting an Accidentally Deleted PWS 2m 25s
13 Addressing Overlapping Boundaries 1m 10s

Didn't answer your question?

  • For water use survey and estimates, please contact the Water Use Survey Team by email or phone at (512)-463-7952.
  • For Texas Water Service Boundary Viewer (TWSBV), please contact TWSBV Administrator by email or phone at (512) 463-9637.
Top