For Immediate Release: Friday, September 11, 2009
For more information, contact: Kirk Holland, General Manager
Aquifer District Adopts Additional Rules to Protect Groundwater
Austin, Texas; September 11, 2009 – The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer
Conservation District has changed its rules to manage more equitably its
groundwater resources and to respond more effectively to severe and prolonged
droughts. At its Board meeting last night, the District’s Board of
Directors approved a sweeping set of rule changes to accomplish those
objectives.
The changes were adopted after an extraordinary amount of stakeholder input
over the last nine months, with public interest heightened by the ongoing
severe groundwater drought in the District.
The adopted rules establish a new Exceptional Drought stage, with
mandatory 40% curtailments in pumping for all permitted users; differentiate
among
several aquifers as to drought management measures and other regulations;
specify accelerated and additional curtailments for certain types of
permits if the aquifer water levels fall to historic low levels; and also
propose
a new temporary transfer permit system that allows certain permittees to
contractually transfer water pumpage rights under certain conditions during
extreme drought to minimize socioeconomic impacts and that provides at the
same time a net benefit to the aquifer accompanying the transaction.
“The new rules evidence the District’s commitment to conserving and
protecting the groundwater in the District and the uses that are dependent
upon
it under all aquifer conditions”, remarked Kirk Holland, the District’s
General Manager. “This is a finite and shared resource, and right now,
anyone using groundwater in the District should consider their water supply in
peril. These rule changes balance aquifer protection and groundwater use
for the benefit of all users for as long as possible during drought.”
Holland noted that, “Despite the severity of the current drought and the
very hot and dry summer, the District’s permittees and their end-user
customers have performed admirably in meeting the required 30% curtailments in
authorized pumpage. The current aquifer conditions and the new rules are not
caused by profligate well pumping but by a lack of rainfall and creek
flow, which replenish the primary Edwards aquifer, for more than two years.
But there is no avoiding the fact that if the current drought worsens, the
larger curtailments and water-source substitutions required under the new
rules will be more difficult to make and likely more expensive for virtually
all those who use the aquifer.”
A tabular summary of the rule changes and the new Rules & Bylaws document
may be viewed on the District website early in the week of September 14th.
For more information, contact the District office at (512) 282-8441.
The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District is charged by the
State of Texas to manage the groundwater resources of southern Travis,
northern Hays, and adjacent parts of Bastrop and Caldwell Counties. These
groundwater systems serve more than 50,000 Central Texans as a water supply
and
feed the iconic recreational and cultural resource of Barton Springs and
its habitat of federally-protected endangered species living there.
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Tammy Raymond
Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District
1124 Regal Row
Austin, TX 78748
(512) 282-8441
