MILANO—A citizens group concerned about the future of groundwater in Milam County has prepared a set of rules revisions it wants the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District to consider.
Four persons representing the Central Texas Aquifers Coalition (CTAC) made a presentation last Tuesday (Feb. 6) to the POSGCD board of directors in its regular monthly session.
The CTAC maintains current POSGCD rules were “written for water marketers,” have already resulted in at least one well drawdown much earlier than planned and “will probably greatly diminish the Simsboro Aquifer under Milam County as a groundwater resource.”
“Our proposed rules represent a near-total revision of the current rules,” according to the presentation.
DRAWDOWN—Mike Kornegay, Don Schuerman, Calvin Whiteley and Ralph Dizzine made the presentation.
CTAC says the water district’s current pumping parameters indicate the Simsboro to drop 300 feet by 2059, and that the district has already allowed permits of 65,000 acre feet per year more than its Modified Available Groundwater (MAG) figure.
CTAC maintains the rules will allow wells to drop more than that anticipated 300-foot drawdown long before the 2059 estimate.
Alcoa and Blue Water Systems have more than 92 percent of Simsboro pumping permits, according to CTAC.
The presentation also maintains it is the current POSGCD rules which made the Vista Ridge project—pumping groundwater to San Antonio—possible.
CTAC quoted a statement from the 2011 Vista Ridge proposal to the City of San Antonio that indicated even in times of pumping/transport reductions Vista Ridge would apply for new permits.
ROCKDALE WELL— The group presented data involving Rockdale Well No. 10 it says shows a danger which impacts only Milam County.
CTAC maintains POSGCD established a target drawdown of 20 feet by 2060 for the Shallow Simsboro Management Zone.
It presented a graphic indicating the water level in No. 10 had dropped 20 feet by 2015, 45 years earlier than planned.
The graphic indicated a slight up-tick for the well in 2016, still below the 2060 prediction.
CTAC also maintains No. 10 is dropping 1.5 feet per year even before two nearby wells—Alcoa and Blue Water—go into full production and adds “these two wells are permitted to pump 95,000 acre-feet per year of Simsboro groundwater.”
The group terms the predicted 300-foot drop in the Simsboro by 2050— with Alcoa and Blue Water impact—as “unacceptable.”
“We want the rules to clearly state in detail how Post Oak will respond to a situation which only threatens Milam County and not Burleson County,” the presentation states.
SUBMIT—Gary Westbrook, POSGCD general manager, said the district has asked CTAC to send the district their proposed edits to current rules, “so we could forward to the Rules Committee for consideration.”
“That is the same as we would do if anyone else made this request,” Westbrook said.
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