Activist warns Gonzales County of outside interests taking aquifer water

A Gonzales County water rights activist warned the Gonzales County Commissioners Court on Monday, Feb. 24, that the county could see as much as 83 percent of its permitted groundwater being pumped away to outside interests within the next 50 years.

Ted Boriack, a member of the Water Protection Association, made a presentation to commissioners at their regular meeting at the Courthouse. He noted that “there is a lot of stuff going on right now with groundwater in the county and in the groundwater district, and it's a stunning amount of water that's already been approved.”

To understand how groundwater rights work, Boriack explained that, in the state of Texas, “groundwater is personal property … so it can be sold and it can be leased.”

“Water rights can be sold, so that's how these big projects come in,” Boriack said. “Acreage is leased to these projects, and then through a permit allocation process through the groundwater district, they get a permit for a certain amount of water. And then here comes the pipe and then they take it away to San Antonio or somewhere.”

Boriack said the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District, which includes most of Gonzales County and a portion of Caldwell County, was established in 1993 through a creation order from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the mission of the district is “to conserve, protect and prevent waste of groundwater resources as the policy of the board to make the most efficient use of the groundwater in the district to provide for the needs of the citizens and ensure growth for future generations.”

Boriack spoke about the most recent groundwater study by Daniel B. Stephens and Associates that was issued by the district at a Jan. 18 workshop, which showed a new and improved model that updated what are called “desired future conditions, which is basically the maximum allowable amount of water that you can take out of the aquifer under these different scenarios.”

He noted the density of monitoring wells that have been placed along the outcrop, or the beginning boundaries of the Carrizo Springs Aquifer, which runs like an underground lake below the surface of Caldwell and Gonzales counties.

Among the different organizations and companies which have wells within the area are Alliance Regional Water Authority (comprised of Kyle, San Marcos, Buda); Canyon Regional Water Authority (County Line Special Utility District (SUD), Crystal Clear SUD, Martindale WSC, and Green Valley SUD); Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA); Aqua Water Supply Corporation (100,000 residents in Bastrop, Travis, Lee, Caldwell, Fayette, Gonzales, and Williamson counties); San Antonio Water System (2 million people in Bexar County as well as parts of Medina and Atascosa counties); and Schertz/Seguin Local Government Corporation (SSLGC), which supplies water to those cities as well as Selma, Universal City and the Springs Hill Water Supply Corporation.

“All of these guys transport water out,” Boriack said. “They have wells up here, but you can see that the production in this area is very compact. It's very concentrated. And these are tremendous allocations of water that are being have been permitted. And you can see these projects, they just they keep coming, they keep coming back for more and more.”

SSLGC is permitted to take the most at 19,362 acre-feet per year (AFY), followed by ARWA at 16,230 AFY. GBRA is currently permitted to take 15,000 AFY but has a pending permit for an additional 9,000 AFY. CRWA is permitted for 13,949 AFY, SAWS is permitted for 11,688 AFY and Aqua Water is permitted for 5,000 AFY. The total currently permitted to be removed from Carrizo Springs Aquifer is 81,319 AFY with 5,000 pending, though it should be noted that as of 2024, these agencies pumped out a total of 37,628 acre-feet of their permitted amounts.

Local users like Gonzales County Water Supply Corporation, City of Gonzales, City of Nixon, EOG Resources and local farmers and ranchers using for irrigation account for far less permitted usage, coming up to 16,397 AFY total. In 2024, these users pumped out a total of 7,456 acre-feet.

A predictive model shows that if full pumping of allowable amounts were to occur, transporter wells would be taking about 83 percent of the aquifer water away from Gonzales and Caldwell counties, opposed to just 17 percent being used locally, Boriack said.

He said computer monitoring shows that drawdowns from wells in the aquifer are already “coming a lot sooner than a lot of people expected” and warned that if maximum pumping were to be allowed, predictive modeling shows every well in the aquifer would be well below the desired future condition (DFC) or maximum allowable drawdown, which could create water shortages.

“At some point you got to say no to these transporter folks that keep coming in looking for another well and another big piece of pipe to take the water away,” Boriack said.

Meanwhile, new rules being unveiled by the underground water district include one which would cease accepting applications for new permits if the water level falls below the DFC.

“This is very concerning, because if you need a new well for the city of Gonzales, or you need an irrigation well for a farmer, then you're going to have potentially a problem with getting this permit,” Boriack said. “They could potentially stop taking permits, and so a farmer may not be able to get a permit, but meanwhile, the city of San Antonio is pumping water out from the district, and, you know, doing their thing with it.”

Boriack said there will be a contested case hearing on the plans to increase GBRA’s pumping allocation by 9,000 AFY on March 11 and told commissioners “we would really appreciate some support behind us, at least some kind of a voice of concern or something on that particular permit, because I just don't see how it's going to end well up with all that concentrated pumping.”