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Residential and agricultural water-well owners need to be aware that Victoria Groundwater Conservation District is in the process of writing rules that will affect their wells. These small wells will be exempt from regulation, however rules are being written that will affect water in those wells. Most voters, who confirmed our district, did so with the understanding that the district could protect our aquifer from harmful export. Unfortunately, under current law, export may not be treated more restrictively than local use. Our district must walk a fine line between protecting local wells and allowing export. If rules are too restrictive on export, the district gets sued by those wishing to take our water. If rules are written too transport permissive, we are exposed to massive export projects such as GBRA’s pipeline. The secret is to craft rules that will give reasonable protection until things can be legislatively fixed. Citizen input is now being solicited by the district to help write these rules.
High capacity wells serving the city and industry are deep and are less susceptible to drawdown, whereas many small wells will be sucking air if the water table drops about 10 feet. At our district’s meetings, the small-well owners who will be most affected are seldom present, whereas special interests are there in number. It is imperative that small-well owners get involved in this rulemaking process. There will be two public hearings Sept. 5 and 10 specifically on the rulemaking, but it will really be too late to change much, so you should inform yourself and provide comment before Aug. 1 when the board adopts their “draft.” The “draft” is available at www.vcgcd.org. Also, see www.texaswaterblog.org, where I will try to explain things more fully, including some proposed legislation to give districts better control over export.
Bill Richter
Victoria