HTGCD moving forward with aquifer protections
A new Regional Recharge Study Zone was approved by the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District in order to study the Trinity Aquifer and how it influences the Blanco River. The district also moved closer to potentially approving a Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone. Both measures would limit the amount of water that can be pumped from the aquifer throughout much of the northeast portion of the Wimberley Valley and Hays County.
The Regional Recharge Study Zone will monitor recharge, discharge, spring flow, water quality and aquifer levels for a fiveyear period from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2025 while studies are ongoing in the area. Any new non-exempt well in the zone will not be allowed to pump more than 10 acre feet of water per year.
“We have just experienced in this district… a water grab, essentially, that in my opinion would have an adverse effect on our community,” Doc Jones, HTGCD Board Member, said referencing the Electro Purification project. “I think that we need to take a better look at the area around us that is up dip of Jacob’s Well and Pleasant Valley Springs to make sure we don’t let something like that happen again. But we need to gather more information to know what we are doing and we are one of many groups that are going to study that area.”
There are multiple entities planning or participating in studies in the area of the Regional Recharge Study Zone, which largely runs west of FM 2325 to the county line, including Hays County, the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Texas Water Development Board and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District.
“We have no issues with the Regional Recharge Study Zone,” Garrett Allen, Director of Wimberley Water Supply Corporation said. “We have no wells within that zone. We don’t really have a dog in that fight. That is just for protection for the future. That is what that zone is for is protecting the aquifer from some sort of big developer.”
The new rules in place will limit new water pumping permits to 10 acre feet in that area for a long enough time for those studies to be completed.
“We don’t know how much water we have, and we need to find out,” Jones said. “This district has really gained a lot of ground on science in recent years. We have wells that are non-pumping wells that are strictly monitoring wells. We have telemetry in all points of our district, so that we are able to tell a whole lot more now about what happens when it rains and how is the aquifer responding in a specific area and not responding in a specific area. We are in the process of changing our drought triggers around. This is all science that helps us know more about what is down there. It allows us to more clearly understand what kind of water we have to take care of.”
The conservation district is also considering a Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone, which would more strictly limit pumping in the area north of Woodcreek. The proposal was put back out for 20 more days of public comment last week. Board President Linda Kay Rogers said during last week’s HTGCD meeting that the measures may not be strong enough to keep Jacob’s Well from stopping pumping during a significant drought but that the district has to “look at ‘Can it be done?’ and ‘Is it reasonable?’” Others are concerned that the curtailments may be too significant.
Beyond limiting the new water pumping permits in the area, the new management zone would also significantly increase the cutbacks, often called curtailments, that would be required during a drought. Instead of basing water pumping curtailments on the amount of water that an entity is allowed to pump, the curtailments would be start from the average amount of water that has been pumped by an entity over the last three years.
The new triggers for such curtailments would be based on the cubic feet per second of water flowing from Jacob’s Well over a 10 day average. At six cfs a 10 percent reduction would be required in pumping all the way to a 30 percent curtailment when Jacob’s Well flows at less than three cfs.
This would impact customers within the management zone of both Wimberley Water Supply Corporation and Aqua Texas, both of which expressed varying degrees of concerns about the management zone.
Originally, there was potential for a 40 percent curtailment, which WWSC said would be “nearly impossible” to achieve. At the last meeting, the HTGCD left the highest curtailment at 30 percent.
Garrett Allen, Director of Wimberley Water Supply Corporation, said that the WWSC board has not voted on if they approve of the Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone, but “we have issues with how the curtailments are being drawn up.”
He said he was concerned about the feasibility of the curtailments and that it appeared some of the practices proposed for the management zone may end up being district-wide rules. The water supply corporation submitted written questions to the district, and Allen said he is hoping the process will slow down a bit to try and allow them to address some of the concerns.
Aqua Texas, which has three wells inside of the management zone, has not sent in comments on the zone.
“In my opinion, it would be difficult,” Brent Reeh, Central Texas Area Manager for Aqua Texas, said.
“We, as a water company, really only have the ability to look at people who use outside watering – irrigation. We can’t see what the customers are using indoors, so our curtailment would be based off irrigation. We would have to have the customers reduce their irrigation.”
He said that, under this potential zone, that would happen more often and to a greater degree then it currently does. He was also clear that Aqua Texas would continue to find a way to provide the necessary water.
“Aqua Texas will do everything we can to ensure that the customers have water,” Reeh said. “That is not going to go away. We aren’t going to be asking our customers to quit taking a shower or cooking. We will make sure our customers are taken care of.”
To read more about the proposed Jacob’s Well Groundwater Management Zone, go to www.haysgroundwater.com, click on “Management Zone” in the left hand column and scroll down to Rule 15.