CITIZEN ALERT about the next Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District meeting being held on Monday, February the 21st at ONE o'clock in the afternoon at the Dripping Springs City Hall at 511 Mercer Street
There is a game being played in Woodcreek North involving WIMBERLEY SPRINGS PARTNERS, AQUA TEXAS, AND THE HAYS TRINITY GROUNDWATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT (HTGCD)
Aqua Texas (private, for-profit utility company) and Wimberley Springs Partners (land-owner and developer) have become hand-in-glove partners in the Wimberley Valley.
Now they want to become “hand-in-your-pocket” partners with a dense development proposed in Woodcreek North. And joining right in are the three members of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation? District (HTGCD), who form a voting majority block – President Jimmy Skipton, District 1; Mark Key, District 3; and Greg Nesbitt, District 2.
Here’s the game. Aqua Texas cannot get a discharge permit for its treated sewage so it sells gives its sewage (67 million gallons a year) to Wimberley Springs Partners (WSP) who uses it to water the Quicksand Golf Course that they own in the City of Woodcreek. Nothing wrong here, except that WSP continues to pump 29 million gallons (six year average) of groundwater annually from six wells to water the golf course and none of that pumping has been permitted by the HTGCD. WSP wants a permit and has been in negotiation with the HTGCD.
Now comes Wimberley Springs Partners with a desire to develop the property it has acquired in Woodcreek North (approximately 1300 unimproved lots). They want to redevelop to urban, NOT HILL COUNTRY, density standards – one quarter acre lots with a few larger lots. They want to use Aqua Texas to provide water and sewer services. Aqua Texas needs a guaranteed allocation of groundwater pumping from the HTGCD to be able to serve this high density development (the Ridge at Wimberley Springs is Phase One). Lot owners would be required to connect to Aqua Texas - no rainwater collection systems there.
In order to provide sewer service to the proposed WSP development, Aqua Texas would need more land to apply treated sewage generated by the new homes that could be built on the lots developed and sold by WSP. So WSP offers up their defunct golf course in Woodcreek North as a disposal site for the Aqua Texas sewage. WSP also theorizes that they can market the dense development as “golf course” property. WSP makes an impassioned appeal to the golfers in the Woodcreek community to support a second golf course and preserve the property values, etc. in Woodcreek. We understand that an earlier survey yielded few Woodcreek golfers who would desire to play on a second golf course.
Now comes the development friendly, give-our-groundwater-away mentality of the three members of the HTGCD board – Skipton, Key, and Nesbitt. They seem to be inclined to grant anything that Aqua Texas and WSP want even though Aqua Texas is a huge waster of groundwater in both Woodcreek North and the city of Woodcreek. They ignore the fact that the Trinity Aquifer that they have pledged to conserve, preserve, and recharge is already being pumped to the max. They ignore the State Mandated Groundwater Planning Process (Managed Available Groundwater – MAG) which later this spring will set the rate at which groundwater can be allocated by permit to suppliers like Aqua Texas and Wimberley Water Supply. They are prepared to give away three year permits without any scientific basis even before the MAG is available.
So how does the game play out? If WSP is given the permit it wants to develop the second golf course within its proposed high density development, its consumption of precious groundwater will increase by 275% to 80 million gallons annually. During normal rainfall years the WSP permit could increase by 550% to 160 million gallons annually to develop the new golf course. If sales of new lots and home construction are slow and treated sewage is not available from Aqua Texas (very likely), the only method available to keep the second golf course alive would be more groundwater pumping. The result would be depletion of the aquifer, more wells going dry, and Jacob’s Well and Cypress Creek diminished.
Aqua Texas wants a permit that will allow it the same amount of groundwater it currently pumps, even though it only sells 60% of the water it pumps. Forty percent is wasted. Aqua says it plans to begin repairing the leaky lines within Woodcreek and Woodcreek North. Over the next several years this five million dollar repair cost would be passed on to Aqua Texas customers resulting in higher than ever utility bills. As Aqua Texas repairs the leaks, it wants to use the water it saves to serve the new customers created by the Wimberley Springs Partners dense, urban style development. This new development would be built over a prime recharge area of the Trinity Aquifer and could diminish recharge of the aquifer. Think also how downstream flooding would increase during heavy rains.
So the game for Aqua Texas is growth of its system, higher rates, and bigger profits. The game for Wimberley Springs Partners is possible big profits from sales of dense, urban style lots to a mass builder like K B Homes. The game for the trio of the HTGCD is unclear except that each of them has a stake in growth and development within Hays County. Skipton owns 137 undeveloped AG acres in western Hays County. Key has a utility construction business. Nesbitt is a utility and septic system contractor.
The game for current and future Hill Country land owners and residents would be lower aquifer levels, diminished spring flows (and a dry Cypress Creek), possible lower property values as groundwater is ever more scarce, and increased congestion on our roads.
Friends, this is another True Ranch, but with multiple players. We need to rise up and tell all our elected officials (especially our city, county, and HTGCD officials) that the game is off. We don’t want the high density development proposed by Wimberley Springs Partners. We don’t want a second golf course that will drain our aquifer. We do want Aqua Texas to fix the sorry system that they have allowed to rot away and we do want Aqua to pay the tab using the exorbitant profits they make off the Woodcreek and Woodcreek North systems. And we want to HTGCD trio to back off and stop offering to give away our precious groundwater.
You know the people to contact – Aqua Texas Brent Rhee; Winton Porterfield with WSP; Hays County Commissioner Will Conley and Judge Bert Cobb; the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Directors; the Board Members of the Woodcreek POA; and City of Woodcreek Mayor Eric Eskelund and City Council.
Plan to attend the HTGCD meeting in Dripping Springs at 1:00 pm on Monday, February 21st during which these issues will be considered. Please attend and express your concerns.
Jim McMeans
512-847-6578
