GMA 12 approves Desired Future Conditions

By Andy Ross -- Bastrop Advertiser

An important development for long-term water resources planning took place this Thursday when groundwater conservation districts within the Groundwater Management Area 12 unanimously approved their Desired Future Condition (DFC) figures to be submitted to the Texas Water Development Board.

The approved DFCs for GMA 12 – which consists of five groundwater conservation districts that covers portions of 14 counties – are the primary figures that will be used by the TWDB later this year in determining the amount of groundwater available for withdrawal in the GMA 12’s shared aquifers over the next 50-year period.
This withdrawal volume target, better known as Managed Available Groundwater, is ultimately what will determine the amount of permitting allowed – or, more importantly say some, the amount disallowed in future years.

Joe Cooper, general manager of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District which encompasses Bastrop and Lee counties, says the TWDB will weigh in on the figures approved by each district Thursday before they can become official.
“The DFCs will be forwarded to the TWDB and they will rule on the reasonableness or unreasonableness of them,” Cooper said on Thursday. “Now we are kind of in a suspenseful time waiting on feedback from the TWDB so we can proceed and officially ratify those numbers.”

The deadline for all districts within the 16 Groundwater Management Areas in Texas to submit their DFCs to the TWDB is Sept. 1.
Cooper says the meeting Thursday in Milano was well attended by the general public, some of whom expressed disagreement with the science and models used to develop the DFCs. Cooper himself admits he has grown concerned in recent months over how the DFC and MAG figures will be interpreted by the TWDB in accordance with House Bill 1763. That legislation, passed in 2005 to establish a framework for regional water planning, required that groundwater conservation districts around Texas to only permit up to their GMA’s Managed Available Groundwater.

Now, however, says Cooper, it seems possible that more flexibility around the permitting cutoff could come into play when evaluating and setting MAG figures.
“We don’t know yet what the numbers are actually going to mean,” Cooper said. “It is still up in the air. We are waiting on the real language and how this number is going to be interpreted.”

The LPGCD’s uncertainly around the soon-to-be handed down MAG figure has most recently manifested in the temporary moratorium on well drilling that was approved last month. The three-month moratorium came as Cooper and the LPGCD’s hydrologist Dr. Robert Kier advised board members that according to their studies, the amount of permits already given for the Simsboro Aquifer (and possibly others) “vastly” exceeds the anticipated MAG figure for GMA 12. Making the outlook for LPGCD and other nearby districts even more disconcerting are the large-scale water marketers anxiously eyeing the possibility of pumping groundwater supplies beneath Bastrop County to the rapidly growing developments along the I-35 Corridor between San Marcos and San Antonio. Most vividly illustrating such efforts are the negotiations currently underway between the water marketer End Op and the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority.

“With the projected growth over the next 50 years (in Bastrop County) we have already exceeded the MAG with what has been permitted; even without the water purveyors plans to take water out,” said Kier at the LPGCD Jan. 20 meeting. “We are kind of on the verge of being in trouble.”

The LPGCD is currently the only groundwater conservation district within the GMA 12 that has established a moratorium on new well drilling.

When asked Thursday how the other districts have interpreted LPGD’s move, Cooper stressed the threat posed to long-term supplies by purveyors such as End-Op.
“The water marketers would like to have carte blanche access and take all the permits they can,” Cooper said. “Whether it’s a person’s budget, or water or anything else, you can only allocate a certain amount. They expect us to just write permits and they say nothing is going to happen, but they don’t have any proof of that.”

The LPGCD’s DFC figures approved Thursday for the major and minor aquifers shared by districts within the GMA 12 are as follows: Sparta Aquifer, 10 ft. drawdown; Queen City Aquifer 13 ft. drawdown; Carrizo Aquifer, 47 ft. drawdown; Calvert Bluff Aquifer, 99 ft. drawdown; Simsboro Aquifer, 212 ft., Hooper Aquifer, 129 ft. drawdown.

The other four districts within GMA 12 are Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District, Fayette County Groundwater Conservation District, Mid-East Texas Groundwater Conservation District and Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District. The DFC figures approved Thursday by each of the above districts are listed on their respective websites.