Groundwater experts spoke on various topics in the Caldwell Civic Center on Aug. 12, during the seventh annual Milam & Burleson Counties Groundwater Summit. Burleson County Judge
Burleson County Judge Keith Schroeder opened the summit with words of praise for the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District board for its work involving groundwater in the district.
Stacey Steinbach and Adeline Fox, both of the Texas Water Conservation Association, explained TWCA’s goal is to be a trusted resource promoting sound water policy for Texas. They assured listeners that stakeholders’ views are considered in policy decisions by building consensus among their membership of groundwater professionals, through education with conferences, conventions and with staffers in the Capitol.
Michael Irlbeck of EPCOR USA Inc. discussed the status of water in Texas. As Texas’ population continues to grow, the water demand will continue to rise. He pointed out the conservation will be a bigger part of fulfilling the demand as well as reuse of water and desalinization of both brackish groundwater and sea water. In addition, the state has plans to build 23 new reservoirs for the expected demand.
Steve Young, hydrogeologist from Intera; Bobby Bazan, Water Resource Manager; Craig Andrews; and Jordan Aldridge, Field Technicians for POSGCD explained that POGCD looks at information from monitoring wells to check for compliance issues, to help make decisions on management and to provide data for seeing water levels in the aquifers of the district.
Robert Mace of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and Young compared the projected and actual impacts of the Vista Ridge project in the district. Mace said there is always some uncertainty in any model but the more data you have the more reliable the model can be through calibration with the data.
Young said decision makers use the model to evaluate the certainty, reliability and level of confidence of the models. He said that POSGCD is using the models and monitor wells in the area of Vista Ridge to understand and more accurately predict what is actually happening with the aquifers.
Milam County Judge Steve Young talked about upcoming economic development in the area and how an increase in population will put stress on our natural resources including groundwater. Judge Young said there is a need for the groundwater district and the work it does to protect the district’s aquifers.
POSGCD board members Steven Wise and Becky Goetsch explained the District’s Management Strategies Report. With Texas being a Rule of Capture State our management strategies will help us manage now and into the future.
These tools provide protection to existing groundwater users and landowners’ property rights, divided the district into management zones based on aquifer properties, maintain protection of water levels in the shallow zones, set predetermined threshold levels based on existing wells, and work within the GMA process to develop DFCs to benefit all stakeholders and more.
Westbrook spoke of the issues in Groundwater Management Area 12. He said that our neighbors affect the water levels in our district and we affect theirs. If there was no pumping in our district, our water levels would change due to pumping in other districts.
Since Texas is a Rule of Capture state, without groundwater districts, anyone could produce unregulated. The district gets to amend the rule of capture to protect our landowners. The district allows two acre feet per acre per year.
He then discussed the previous and current methods used by GMA 12 to determine DFCs and noted the change could negatively impact well owners in POSGCD.
An update on the Aquifer Conservancy Program (ACP) was given by of Wise and Goetsch. The ACP is a way for local landowners to protect the water under their land. This program that the Board started 3 years ago has been a big success in conservation for our District and now includes more than 600 parcels of land and more than 45,000 acres.
Speaker presentation slides are at POSGCD website at https://posgcd.org/ground-water-summit/ and videos of the presentation will be up soon, organizers said.
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