Judge to hear GBRA contested permit case in February

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A preliminary contested case hearing on the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority’s request to drill three additional water wells in the Carrizo Aquifer has been set for Thursday, Feb. 16, before hearing examiner Judge Stephen B. Ables. 

GBRA is asking the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District to increase its permit from an original 15,000 acre-feet of water rights in the Carrizo Aquifer to 24,000 acre-feet, an increase of 9,000 acre-feet.

Darrell Nichols, a senior GBRA deputy general manager, told GCUWCD at a Nov. 8 meeting that the aquifer can reasonably accommodate their request to increase production by that amount. However, a group of citizens, including Waelder area landowner Ted Boriak, Mark and Sally Ploeger, Mary Ann Menning, Jan Lindemann, Mark Sleeper, Phil and James Breitschopf, Daisy Scheske Freeman and William Miller, have opposed the permit request, claiming the additional drilling will deplete an already drought-riddled and overtaxed aquifer. They also claim GBRA has failed to respond to landowners’ concerns about the impact the additional water exportation would have on those whose only water source is the aquifer.

The individuals who are protesting the permit application have until Jan. 23, 2023, to submit all briefs to Ables for review, while the applicants have until Feb. 6, 2023, to submit their responses. The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District, 522 Saint Matthew Street, Gonzales.

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