Water Protection Association fighting to protect Gonzales County’s groundwater, surface water

The Water Protection Association (WPA) was established in 2006 by volunteer officers and members to protect the groundwater and surface water resources and the rights of the people of Gonzales County.

Friends of Lakewood president Joe Solansky recently made a generous donation to the WPA as a show of support for WPA efforts in protection of water resources in Gonzales and Caldwell counties. WPA donations can be mailed to PO Box 122, Gonzales, TX 78629.

Groundwater permits are managed by the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District (GCUWCD), which includes most of Gonzales County and part of Caldwell County. 

The GCUWCD is currently revising the groundwater rules that it applies to the permitting of wells and exporting of water.  According to the GCUWCD general manager, Laura Martin, the GCUWCD will hold a rule making workshop on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 9 a.m. The GCUWCD board members, general manager, and the attorney hired by the GCUWCD (Greg Ellis) have prepared a revised set of rules for public comment.

In response to a Public Information Act records request to the GCUWCD for documents and communications about the source of the new rules proposed by the GCUWCD, the general manager’s response is “no such documentation exists and cannot be produced.” The GCUWCD attorney Greg Ellis responded by stating “While the public is entitled to access to public records, that does not entitle the public to information on which Board or staff member recommended which rule.”

The GCUWCD is proposing 14 pages of rule revisions, but won’t say which individual at the GCUWCD is behind a particular rule change or the justification for any rule change. It is clear, however, that comments from local stakeholders to help protect family farms and ranches were not incorporated in the GCUWD’s proposed rules. 

Furthermore, the GCUWCD has yet another groundwater permit application in process with the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA), which already has a permit to produce and export 15,000 acre-feet per year of groundwater from seven wells. GBRA has applied for an additional 9,000 acre-feet per year and three new wells.

The GBRA groundwater wells are tightly concentrated in the northeast corner of Gonzales County north of Waelder.  The WPA, along with other landowners, have protested this additional permit request by GBRA due to the massive amount of groundwater already approved by the GCUWCD, and concerns about GBRA’s pumping on area farms and ranches.

The permit application is in the late stage of a contested case hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings. This groundwater project began with a permit application more htan 10 years ago as the Texas Water Alliance (TWA) project, which was actually a California-based San Jose Corporation project. San Jose Corporation sold the TWA project to GBRA for $30 million in November 2017 for a $12.5 million profit.

According to the Texas Water Development Board, the GCUWCD modeled available groundwater for the Carrizo Aquifer at 47,584 acre-feet per year in 2020 and 61,365 acre-feet per year in 2030, but GCUWCD has already permitted a massive 92,205 acre-feet per year.

The vast majority (70,990 acre-feet per year, or 77 percent) of the groundwater permits approved by GCUWCD are for exporting the groundwater out of the district, leaving only a small portion (21,215 acre-feet per year, or 23 percent) for use by towns, agriculture and businesses within Gonzales and Caldwell counties.

In addition, the GCUWCD mitigation program for addressing local wells that incur problems due to dropping water levels has had funding issues and does not include municipal water wells, such as Gonzales, Nixon, Smiley and Waelder. Mitigation funds for local agriculture are at the bottom of a priority ranking and have spending restrictions. 

It’s important that our civic leaders and landholders get involved and raise concern about the massive export of groundwater outside of Gonzales County. It’s time the GCUWCD stopped approving permits for exporters, and started protecting our aquifers and our local stakeholders and water rights.

The GCUWCD has a monthly board meeting every second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the GCUWCD office and the public is encouraged to attend and voice concerns. Let’s not go the way of California by destroying our most precious asset (our water resources), leaving our own towns, farms and ranches in distress.

Ted Boriack is a Gonzales County resident and member of the Water Protection Association (WPA).