The population in League City has exploded over the last decade, and with more people moving in, more water from the city system is being used.
At a point during the recent drought, League City had almost maxed out its water usage. City officials are now planning for the future, expecting more people to move to League City in the coming years.
From golf courses, to green ways, to landscaped subdivisions, a city of 85,000 people uses a lot of water.
"The highest we've gotten to is 19 million gallons during the summer, and that was at our peak and that's when we started to ration back," said Tony Allender with the League City Planning and Research department.
That 19 million gallons a day is pretty close to League City's maximum daily water volume of 21 million gallons a day.
"What we're looking to do now is grow our water supply so that as the population grows, we can continue to allow people to enjoy their activities," Allender said.
The Tuscan Lakes subdivision is a pretty good example of that growth. Over the last six years, hundreds of people have moved in.
"I think it's wonderful," neighbor Frank Ibanez said.
Ibanez says he and a lot of his neighbors have conserved water during the drought.
"People in general have been very conservative about consumption, washing vehicles, watering the lawns, things like that," he said.
And the city encourages residents to be careful with their water. But the bottom line is there just won't be enough to go around eventually.
So League City is in talks with Pasadena and Houston to buy more water.
"The water we can acquire from other communities can get us up to 2020," Allender said.
But that's just eight years away.
Already the city reuses water, like at the South Shores golf course.
Leaders are considering replacing current water pipelines with bigger ones and talking to other southeast Texas communities about water sharing.
No decisions have been made yet, but city leaders say the 90,000 people projected to move there in the coming decades will need water.
"At that point, we're going to need in the ballpark of 50 million gallons a day, so we need to be prepared for that and that's why all the options are on the table," Allender said.
