No one drinks the tap water, which is unbearably briny as the lake dries up. After one of the hottest summers on record, the lake that is the lone water supply and main recreational draw in this tiny West Texas town is more than 99 percent empty. Robert Lee, which is a two-hour drive east of Midland, has received only about six inches of rainfall this year, half the normal amount. It is the worst water stitch the town has been in at least since the lake, E.V. Spence Reservoir, was created in the 1960s by damming a portion of the Colorado River. More water is on the way, but it will only be enough to meet the basic needs of the town of 1,049 and will come at the expense of yet another sizable water rate increase. Residents are looking forward to improved palatability and a more stable supply because Spence — which is usually 21 times the size of the entire area of Robert Lee, but now not much bigger than a pond — withers away. “It tastes ugly and it stinks,” said Delfino Navarro, a mechanic and handyman at a local car dealership, who stood on his browning front lawn on a recent afternoon with a bottle of water in hand. “You can’t drink that water or you’ll get sick.”
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Parched Texas town seeks emergency relief from drought
