Does Boerne have enough water?

Boerne draws from three sources — Canyon Lake surface water purchased through the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, Boerne City Lake, and local wells in the Trinity Group aquifers. Supply is actively managed, not unlimited: the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District sets drought stages and pumping rules countywide. Check ccgcd.org for the current stage.

Where the city's water actually comes from

Three sources, not one (City of Boerne):

Canyon Lake surface water, purchased through the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.
Boerne City Lake.
Local wells in the Trinity Group aquifers.

Diversification is the point. A city drawing from one source is exposed to whatever happens to that source. Boerne can lean on surface water when the aquifer is stressed and on groundwater when surface supply is short. That is a meaningfully better position than a single-source system, and it is also why "does Boerne have enough water" has no yes-or-no answer — it depends on which source, which year and which stage.

Who regulates the groundwater

The Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District regulates groundwater in Kendall County and sets drought stages. It does that with real instrumentation: roughly 42 monitor wells, stream gauges on Cibolo Creek and the Guadalupe River, and more than 100 rain gauge sites (Cow Creek GCD).

Drought stages in the district have moved between Stage 2, Stage 3 and Stage 4 in recent years (Boerne Star). Stage 4 emergency rules have been reported to carry a mandatory reduction in allowable well pumping.

This page does not state a current stage, on purpose. Stages change with conditions, and a number printed in any article — including this one — goes stale. ccgcd.org is the source. Check it before you rely on a stage, and check it again before closing.

Cow Creek GCD is also a taxing entity that can appear on a Kendall County tax bill, alongside Kendall County WCID #1 and two MUDs (Kendall Appraisal District). Groundwater management here is a funded local government function, not an advisory committee.

Growth is the pressure

Kendall County grew 20.3 percent between 2020 and 2025, from an estimated 44,568 to 53,289 residents, mostly through domestic migration (Community Impact).

More rooftops on a finite aquifer is the core tension in every Hill Country water conversation. It is why groundwater regulation exists here, why drought stages have teeth, and why a development that cannot document water does not get built at the density its plan assumed. Water availability is one of the quiet reasons Hill Country supply stays constrained and prices stay firm.

A city tap and a well are two different purchases

This is the part that costs buyers money, and it has nothing to do with the city's overall supply.

Inside the city limits, you are a City of Boerne utility customer. The city manages source, treatment, distribution and drought restrictions. Your obligation is to follow watering restrictions and pay the bill. Supply risk is the city's problem to solve.

On acreage outside the city, the well is yours. Everything below is your diligence:

Yield. Gallons per minute, tested — not "the seller says it's always been fine." A well that serves two people may not serve six with irrigation and livestock.
Depth, casing and pump condition. Age, materials, and whether the pump is near end of life. Replacement is a five-figure conversation.
Which formation it draws from, and how that formation has behaved through recent drought stages.
Shared wells. A well serving more than one tract is governed by an agreement, and the quality of that agreement is a legal question.
District rules. Permitting, registration and pumping limits under Cow Creek GCD, including what happens to your allowable pumping in a high drought stage.
Water quality testing, separately from yield.
Storage and rainwater collection, which many Hill Country properties use to buffer a low-yield well.

A general home inspection is not a well evaluation. A qualified water well contractor tests the well; Cow Creek GCD answers the permitting and pumping-rule questions; a Texas real estate attorney reads a shared-well agreement or a water-rights reservation in the chain of title.

What the contract paperwork does and does not tell you

TREC promulgates a Seller's Disclosure about Groundwater and Surface Water Rights, form 61-0, effective 07/01/2026 (TREC contracts). Its existence is the tell: water rights in Texas are separable from the surface estate and are worth disclosing on their own form.

The standard Seller's Disclosure Notice under Texas Property Code §5.008 covers property condition as the seller knows it (Tex. Prop. Code §5.008). A seller cannot disclose an aquifer trend they do not know about, and there is no box on any form that certifies future yield. Disclosure is a floor, not a diligence plan.

The realistic answer

Boerne has a managed, three-source supply and an active groundwater district with instrumentation and enforcement. That is better infrastructure than most Hill Country towns of its size, and it is the reason growth here has not run into a hard wall.

It is not an unlimited supply, and nobody local pretends otherwise. Drought stages have reached Stage 4 with mandatory pumping cuts. Landscaping expectations formed somewhere wetter do not survive here. And a buyer on a private well carries the risk personally, in a way a city utility customer does not.

Buy accordingly: check the current stage at ccgcd.org, confirm whether the address is on city water or a well before you write the offer, and put a real well evaluation inside the option period if it is a well.

Questions about a specific property?

Call or text 830-446-3847 · Email heath.shepard@kw.com

Drought stages and district rules change; ccgcd.org is the authority for current conditions in Kendall County. This page is not legal advice — a Texas real estate attorney is the right person for shared-well agreements, water-rights reservations and title questions.