Boerne Water Dashboard

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Welcome to the Boerne Water Dashboard. The purpose of this dashboard is to provide water-related data to users in one easy to navigate website. As part of the efforts by the City of Boerne to increase water sustainability and resilience, this website is meant to assist individuals in their decisions as they pertain to water. Simply put, we believe this will better help residents of Boerne and Kendall County better understand where the water they consume every day comes from and how our water resources across the Lone Star State are connected. These efforts tie into a broader Internet of Water, where data can lead to better management. Join the City of Boerne in expanding these efforts by exploring data below.

To get started, select a utility from the map or drop down menu (as this project grows, more utilities will be included).
Next, users can select different tabs on the right to learn more about water supply conditions.
The help icons and text descriptions provide more details to understand each tab.

Note, throughout the dashboard you will find underlined text. These are links that can transfer you to other websites with more information.


Select a utility from the drop down menu:

 

Turn Map Layers On and Off

Once a layer is chosen, hover over it for more information. For definitions on these layers, scroll to the bottom of the map

Hover over a utility for more information

Below are definitions/explenations for the map layers found above

  • Utility: geographic boundary of the utility.
  • County: the boundaries of all Texas counties with their names.
  • Groundwater Mgmt Area: Groundwater Management Areas were created for the protection of groundwater. There are 16 of these GMAs across Texas, and this map layers shows those boundaries. Boerne and Kendall County are located in GMA 9.
  • River Basin: a river basin is an area of land where rainfall and other water tributaries, such as creeks, drain into a river and its tributaries. This layer shows the river basins of Texas with their names. Boerne Utilities is within the San Antonio River Basin, while Canyon Lake is within the Guadalupe River Basin.
  • Sub-Basin: these sub-basins are found within a major river basin. The San Antonio River Basin has 4 sub-basins (Medina Rive, Upper San Antonio River, Cibolo Creek, and Lower San Antonio River). This layer shows these sub-basins and their names.
  • Rivers: rivers of Texas.
  • Stream Gages: a site/location used to monitor a body of water. This layer shows the three sites that are relevant to Boerne (one within the utility boundary and two at Canyon Lake).
  • Reservoirs: a man-made lake used as a water supply. For Boerne, the reservoir of relevance is Canyon Lake.
  • Wells: groundwater wells are holes drilled into the ground to access groundwater. This layer shows the 42 wells monitored by the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District. Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs) have the authority to regulate spacing and/or production of wells. Their color indicates their status (from extremely wet to extremely dry) based on their historic data of water level (keeping in mind well depth).
  • Precipitation Stations: relevant precipitation stations and their color indicates their status based on historic data of measured precipitation.
  • Drought: stages of drought, from None (no drought) to D4 (exceptional drought), throughout the country.
  • Precip 7-day Observ: the last 7-day totals of observed rainfall at the state level.
  • Precip 7-day % Normal: the percent normal for the last seven days of observed rainfall. Percent normal is in reference to the percentage that the observed period is above or below what is “normal.” Normal is defined by averaging past years of precipitation.
  • *QPF 7-day Forecast: QPF stands for Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts, and they represent the amount of liquid precipitation expected to fall during a defined period of time, in this case, seven days.
  • *Precip 6-10 Day Forecast: percent chance of precipitation being above or below normal in the next 6-10 days.
  • *Temp 6-10 Day Forecast: percent chance of temperature being above or below normal in the next 6-10 days.

* These layers are different in that they are forecasts and not actual observed data points.

To learn more about your utility please:

  • (1) Select your utility from the map (left) or dropdown menu (above) and
  • (2) Explore data by adding layers to the map (left) or browsing through the tabs (above).
  • (3) You can also enter your address below to find your location within the water service boundary

Select a utility

Select a stream gage or reservoir to see plot

The plot below can show either the streamflow through a stream gage or the storage of a reservoir. Depending on the site chosen on the map, stream gage or reservoir, the y-axis of the plot will differ. For stream gages, the units are in Cubic Feet per Second (cfs). For reservoirs the units are a percentage of full capacity. On the x-axis are the past two years of observed data. The color of each observation represents the status of that observation as it compares to historical data. The “Turn stats layer on” checkbox allows you to dive into statistics/percentiles.

Select a utility to see water demand

The City of Boerne has three main sources of potable water and an additional source in reclaimed water. The following is its contract allocation

The bottom two plots show traces of observed demand. The first plot, Daily Demand, shows how much water was consumed each day for each recorded year and is measured in million(s) of gallons per day. The second plot, Cumulative Demand, shows cumulative water consumption day-by-day for a given year and is measured in million(s) of gallons. Both of these plots use the checkboxes to highlight different years.

Daily Demand

Select to Highlight
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
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2011
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2022

Cumulative Demand

Peak Water Production Capacity

The graphic below depicts how the city manages its sources, specifically to meet peak demand during summer months. As can be seen, water from Canyon Lake Reservoir (GBRA) serves as the city's base load, meeting the majority of demand during non-summer months. Groundwater wells are affected by rainfall and therefore meet a much smaller load of demand compared to GBRA. The remainder of peak demand during summer months is met by Boerne Lake and reclaimed water, which is primarily used for outdoor irrigation.

CLB represents the population within a city limit boundary. WSB represents the population serviced by the utility.

This plot represents the number of people utilizing water from Boerne Utilities in two forms. The solid purple line indicates the City of Boerne population and the dashed blue line shows the total number of water customers.

Select a well from the map for more information

Each of these plots has a top axis depicting the land surface. This is to illustrate the depth of the well at which water is observed (i.e., water level).

The x-axis (horizontal line) of this first plot, Groundwater Levels Relative to Historic Levels, includes the past two years of observed data. The color represents the status of that observation (from very dry to very wet) as it compares to historical data. It is important to keep in mind the depth of the well when looking at this information. The “Turn stats layer on” checkbox allows a user to dive into statistics/percentiles. The y-axis (vertical line) is the feet below surface at which the water level is at.

The y-axis (vertical line) of this plot, Monthly Mean Trends, remains the same as above, but the water level is a monthly average and shows how far below the surface water was accessible. This is also an indication of higher, lower or average periods of precipitation or an increase in water consumption. It is normal for levels to drop during the summer. The checkbox allows users to observe monthly trends for any given year.

Select to Highlight
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
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2021
2022

The y-axis (vertical line) of this plot, Long-term annual trands, remains the same as above, but the water level is a yearly average.

Select a sub-basin to see how drought changes over time

By first selecting a sub-basin from the drop-down menu below, the plot will show historic drought conditions for that watershed and the category of drought (Zero-D4) throughout the years. The bar under the headline Percent of "sub-basin name" basin by status represents the most up to date observations of the percentage of area under observed drought.

Select Watershed:  



To learn more about current drought conditions, visit the US Drought Monitor of Texas, or Boerne Water Conservation.

Select a precipitation gage from the map for more information

These two plots show first, Monthly Precipitation, and second Cumulative Precipitation. The Monthly Precipitation plot shows how much rain/precipitation fell each month, in inches, at an observed site. The Cumulative Precipitation plot shows the sum amount of precipitation day-by-day, in inches. The checkboxes can be used to highlight different years.

Select to Highlight
1990
1991
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Select a utility to see reclaimed water produced

Within the City of Boerne, since 2016 reclaimed water has been a source of water (like Canyon Lake, Boerne Lake, and underground wells), but it is used strictly for outdoor irrigation. Like demand, these plots use the checkboxes to highlight different years. The first plot, Daily Reclaimed Water Produced, shows daily observed reclaimed water used for each recorded year and is measured in million(s) of gallons per day. The second plot, Reclaimed Percent of Total Water, shows the percentage that reclaimed water makes up of the total amount of water used by the city. In other words, the total is the sum of all demand (including reclaimed water use). Therefore, this plot represents the percentage of total that is reclaimed.

Select to Highlight
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022