After three months of drought, the water jugs have finally returned to Auditorium Shores.

RunTex has provided free water along the hike-and-bike trail for over 20 years. Other sports-related businesses joined in and put out jugs along their sections of the trail too. But back in November the city health department decided that the unsecured water stations did not comply with state health laws. So all jugs were removed while the city put a permit process in place. I moaned and groaned along with the rest of Austin, until I read that a dead fish was found in one of the jugs last fall. Ewww.

This week RunTex debuted ten brand-new jugs atop a new wooden rolling cart. The cart design should be easier to load and to move for concerts and other events. The jug lids are tightly secured with locks. I was so tempted to see if I could lift up a lid anyhow, but decided that probably wasn’t a good idea.