WATER BATTLE IS BREWING AMONG THE LOST PINES
Concerns rise about possibility of drying out area aquifers.
BASTROP — When David Teuscher bought property in Bastrop County in 2014, it was intended to be a place that would stay in his family for generations. But this summer, as word spread about a proposal to pump billions of gallons of groundwater to sell to the swelling cities along Interstate 35, Teuscher grew concerned.
He and about 120 landowners from across Bastrop and Lee counties gathered in a room behind the American Legion Hall in Bastrop last week to get some answers: How could they ensure their underlying aquifers would not become a watering hole for the western cities? What recourse would they have if that pumping caused their own wells to run dry?
“I need to know what’s going
on here — I need to know where we’re going to be at in 60 years,” said Teuscher, an orthopedic surgeon from San Antonio. “I don’t want my grandchildren to say: ‘How did they get away with keeping us dry?’ ”
Earlier this year, the Lower Colorado River Authority submitted applications to drill eight water wells into the Simsboro Aquifer, utilizing groundwater rights it purchased in 2015 from the Boy Scouts’ Griffith League Ranch. The LCRA is asking to pump up to 25,000 acrefeet of water a year — equivalent to about 8.15 billion gallons — by 2026 and export that water to customers in the fast-growing areas of Central Texas.
On Wednesday, those applications will be considered by the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, which manages and regulates groundwater pumping in Bastrop and Lee counties. Ahead of that meeting, local environmental groups are teaming up with landowners to organize opposition to LCRA’s request.
On Sept. 13, Michele Ganges, director of the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund, stood at the head of the room for several hours urging landowners to contest the LCRA’s application.
“There’s safety in numbers,” she said.
“We’re not going to defeat permits, because that doesn’t happen under Texas groundwater law. But we can certainly try and limit their amount” of pumping, she added.
A litigious resource
This is not the first time grass-roots organizations in Bastrop County have drummed up forces against companies wanting to export groundwater. In 2013, the groundwater conservation district began considering permit applications from two water marketing companies — Forestar Group and End Op, now known as Recharge Water — that had designs to sell Bastrop County groundwater to households and businesses in Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.
Forestar asked to pump 45,000 acre-feet per year from the Simsboro Aquifer, but after lawsuits filed by local groups dragged on for years, a settlement was reached in 2015 that provided Forestar 28,500 acrefeet. (An acre-foot is roughly equal to the amount of water used by four average Austin households to meet their annual washing, watering and drinking needs.)
Today, without contracts or constructed pipelines, Forestar’s three wells sit unused.
End Op simultaneously requested to pump 46,000 acre-feet per year. But after Aqua Water Supply — Bastrop County’s primary water supplier with 21,000 customers — contested the application, the conservation district sent the case to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for review. The administrative judge sided with End Op and recommended the conservation district award it the full 46,000 acre-feet, or roughly 15 billion gallons a year.
Local landowners and environmental groups sued the district, arguing that they were falsely denied party status while the permit was under review. But an appellate court sided against them earlier this month, ruling that landowners’ petition to intervene in the case was filed past a deadline. Barring a further appeal to the state Supreme Court, the ruling effectively releases End Op’s permit after five years of being tied up in court.
The fallout from that case might mean that a larger onus could be placed on landowners or businesses with pre-existing wells, especially those like Aqua Water Supply with legal and hydrological resources. Whether Aqua Water will contest LCRA’s case is undetermined, but Aqua Water General Manager Dave McMurry said that the company will “almost certainly” intervene.
“I will say in general we’re not very fond of companies taking water out of the area,” McMurry said. “But normally, because we understand the way the system works, we try and negotiate with them to get the best deal that we can for our customers. Sometimes we can; sometimes we can’t.”
Those negotiations could end with certain restrictions or precautions in the permit’s language, including mitigation agreements or phasing-in pumping over several years — one restriction the LCRA and district have agreed on.
“We’re the biggest player in the region. Anyone trying to take water will almost certainly be affecting our water system,” McMurry said.
‘Long-term planning’
It’s not publicly known to whom the LCRA will sell the water it’s seeking. Though the river authority did not grant an interview for this story, it said in a written statement that “the water could be used throughout LCRA’s Central Texas service area for manufacturing, irrigation and power production. To wait until the need arises to begin to look for new supplies would be irresponsible.”
The river authority was created in 1934 by the Legislature to develop the state’s natural resources. The development of water supplies — whether from surface water or groundwater sources — is fundamental to the authority, the statement read.
Bastrop County’s groundwater would flow into the authority’s system, which serves customers within a 20-plus county region along the Colorado River basin — from the Hill Country to Matagorda Bay.
Leveraging groundwater resources is a relatively new enterprise for the authority; most of its water resources come from the Highland Lakes. Recently, the authority drilled four wells at Lost Pines Power Park near Lake Bastrop to pump up to 10,000 acrefeet of water a year, with a limit of 6,500 acre-feet a year averaged over a fiveyear period.
“In analyzing growth projections, it is clear that Texas – and particularly Bastrop County and Central Texas – is a desirable destination for both people and new businesses, and as a responsible water provider, we need to expect and prepare for continued growth,” the authority said.
Lawsuit likely ahead
Local environmental groups see it as a water grab. Steve Box, executive director of Environmental Stewardship, estimates 25,000 acrefeet of water could be worth between $25 million and $50 million retail. And while leaders of the grass-roots effort say they are averse to litigation, the End Op and Forestar cases show they’re not afraid of using lawyers.
One attorney, James Murphy III, a water law expert with Halff Associates, stood before last week’s gathering of concerned landowners and said the LCRA had no business pumping their groundwater.
“What do they want this for? They want your water, so they can keep Lake Travis high, so all those folks who are very well-to-do on Lake Travis can launch their boats during periods of drought,” Murphy said.
Others who’ve been closely involved in Bastrop County water cases believe LCRA’s permit application likely will wind up in court. James Totten, general manager of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, hopes that both parties will make sufficient concessions to avoid litigation.
State Rep. John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, who represents Bastrop County, recognizes that this case is just one of several ongoing water disputes across the state over the last several years.
“Nowadays, pretty much any of these water permits are not going through smoothly,” he said. “Water is a serious topic and is the lifeline for all of us, including our own growth in Bastrop County.”