A yearly review of rules as well as limiting well production may prove to be the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District’s linchpins in efforts to control growth or high-density developments.
As Boerne continues to boom with development and more sites pop up in rural Kendall County, planners at a recent workshop said water conservation is crucial to serve a growing population.
The recent discussion among board members covered potential guidelines and suggestions to strengthen conservation.
“You want to be able to pump water throughout the county for perpetuity,” groundwater district General Manager Micah Voulgaris said. “That’s going to be a tiny amount of water. Way less than we’re pumping right now, I think.”
When Director Ben Eldredge asked how to plan for this, Voulgaris said there’s no way to decrease pumping by 90% in the county, joking, “Get them out of here. Make it illegal to sell land.” However, when Precinct 4 Director Curt Campbell suggested denying permits outright and requiring developers to find outside water – an idea met with concern from the district’s lawyer – another solution was floated: Continue reducing the production limits on non- exempt wells.
With the county cracking down on development in response to residents’ worries about untenable growth in the Hill Country, many have turned to the groundwater district to create rules that help slow expansion.
While the groundwater district can’t directly control growth, members have continually reduced the well production allowed per acre of land, which supporters say has an indirect effect that keeps resources from being sapped.
Agricultural wells, which must be on lots of 10 acres or more, are exempt from the current production limitations, but they are capped at 25,000 gallons of water per day.
However, lots smaller than 10 acres are subject to the district’s well-production limits which have continued to shrink as the directors find data to support the move. Currently, non-exempt wells are capped at .8 acre feet of water per acre of land in a year.
An acre foot is an acre of water that is 1 foot deep, totaling about 326,000 gallons.
However, the directors have noted this production limit could continue to be reduced, going as far as limiting production to 163,000, or half an acre foot, per acre of land in a given year.
At its current limitations, a permitted well may pump 286,880 gallons of water per year for each acre of land it serves, averaging about 785 gallons a day.
With the Texas Water Developmen t Board estimating the average single- family residence uses about 246 gallons of water per day, there’s room for about three single-family homes per acre under the current district limitations.
“You get to a point where you’re going to have to say, ‘OK, anything not on 10 acres is going to be restricted to this number,’” Voulgaris said. “If you change the rule, it’s going to be limited even more to a point where you say, ‘OK, instead of getting .88 acre foot per acre, we lowered it to .6. And now, to get enough water to flush your toilet, you’re going to need 5 or 6 acres.”
One binding limitation to this constant reduction of production limits is a lack of data to support the measure, officials said. However, some new ideas came out of the workshop that might help.
Beyond the district’s efforts to increase its monitor wells, allowing for a better picture of what impact pumping may have on a location, Campbel l sugges ted requiring a higher- use development to have a monitor well at its property line to see the draw-down effect.
Then, citing Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District rules as an example, the directors realized they could further limit production on heavy users or revoke the well permit if excessive draw-down is spotted at the nearest monitor well as a result of the heavier- use development.
However, Voulgaris said this would be difficult to enforce, highlighting a staffing concern for constant monitoring.
Whi le this concept addresses concerns about l a rge developments deplet ing an ex i s t ing neighbor’s supply – which groundwater districts are left to mitigate under current legislation – the district’s lawyer noted these efforts are nearly impossible to mitigate.
Currently, a private landowner cannot sue another landowner for draining water under their land; however, that same landowner may sue the conservation district for not regulating the heavier user.
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