EP case heads to SOAH

Hays County has added its voice to a chorus of entities asking for a contested case hearing regarding a production permit that would allow Electro Purification LLC (EP) to produce 912.5 million gallons of wholesale water by drawing from the Middle Trinity Aquifer.

At its meeting Tuesday morning, the Hays County Commissioners Court ratified a request that Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell had made to the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) for a contested case hearing regarding EP’s production permit application. Shell made the request on June 25 in a letter to the BSEACD board of directors.

“EP has applied to produce a wholesale water supply of 912,500,000 gallons per year,” Shell’s letter reads in part. “They are pursuing a business plan to remove and export groundwater from the Wimberley Valley. They may have a legal right to produce groundwater, but not to the detriment of the residents around them who use their wells for everyday life.“

The agenda item drew comments from several members of the public, including former Precinct 3 Commissioner and current county judge candidate Will Conley.

“Y’all have been unwavering in your support in giving staff and elected officials the resources needed to fight this fight, this horrible idea that was created by people who have no interest in our community whatsoever, who want to make a quick dollar and go back home,” Conley told the commissioners.

Conley said that when the fight over water rights began, “It was a political fight.”

He explained that there were areas of the county that were completely unregulated -- and that those circumstances were replicating across the state as water production companies sought out areas where they could draw groundwater for their businesses. Legislation allowed the formation of a conservation district to protect groundwater resources in Hays County.

“It was a very strange, surreal process to follow,” Shell said, adding that people from across the state were “telling Hays County what was best for Hays County.”

Shell noted that the draft permit BSEACD has issued includes implementation in phases. He took that as an indication that the conservation district knows there will be effects on groundwater availability.

“There are proactive measures that have been put in that permit which show that the district and their scientists already agree there will be impacts from pumpin 0.5 mgd (million gallons a day),” Shell said, adding that if EP eventually pumps its maximum amount of water from the Middle Trinity Aquifer, “... some of those impacts will never be reversed.”

Shell said that other parties — individuals and groups — have already filed requests for contested case hearings regarding EP’s production permit, and that the time is right for the county to “enter this conversation in a formal way.”

Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe told Shell that his explanation clearly laid out the situation, and she noted that there are other regional developments under way that will deliver water to areas east of the interstate.

“I don’t believe we need to take this water out of this area to provide for those areas,” she said.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Whisenant also voiced his support for Shell’s request for a contested case hearing.

“Having read commissioner Shell’s letter, having looked at provisions in the permitting process, it’s at least a reasonable start,” he said.

The vote to ratify Shell’s request passed unanimously.