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Board president Jimmy Skipton says lawsuit "is a waste of time."
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By Bob Ochoa
Editor
The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association, joined by a number of private parties, has filed a lawsuit against the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District claiming the district acted illegally in granting a long-delayed groundwater permit to developer Wimberley Springs Partners in February.
The suit (Cause No. 11-1086) was filed May 27 in Judge Jack Robison's 207th State District Court in Hays County. It seeks to reverse the decision by the groundwater district's 5-member board of directors granting a permit to Wimberley Springs and reversal of a related decision by the board denying parties a contested hearing over the permit.
Directors, at a Feb. 21 meeting, voted 3-2 to grant Wimberley Springs a 3-year permit with access to 81.5 million gallons of groundwater annually, plus a 1-year "rebuild" permit of 81.5 million gallons dependent upon sufficient rainfall.
The decision drew immediate criticism from Wimberley area residents who feared the groundwater would be wasted on a golf course and future unsustainable development at Wimberley Springs, located a few miles west of Wimberley on FM 2325. Pleas for a contested case by residents were later turned down by the District board.
The other plaintiffs joining the suit from the Wimberley area are Johanna L. Smith, H. K. Acord and Janet Acord, James R. McMeans and David H. Glenn.
All of the parties say they have been adversely affected by the District's actions.
"Ms. Smith had an interest not common to members of the public . . . she would be directly affected by the Board's action," the lawsuit states. "Her property is located approximately 2000 feet from the permitted Maintenance 1 and Maintenance Well 2 wells. There are two groundwater wells on her property she uses to furnish water to two residences, as well as livestock and wildlife. The property was then, and is still used as a working cattle ranch . . . Cypress Creek also runs through her property, which is located downstream from Jacob's Well, so that any impact of the proposed pumping on Jacob's Well will impact her ability to use Cypress Creek."
The WVWA, a non-profit organization that oversees the management of the natural artesian spring at Jacob's Well and the Jacob's Well Natural Area near Wimberley, said in the lawsuit, "The flow of groundwater from Jacob's Well will be reduced by the pumpage allowed by the (WSP) permit that will occur at the six Permitted wells encircling Jacob's Well. WVWA is adversely affected by the Defendant's decision to deny WVWA's hearing request, and issue the permit to WSP."
Plaintiffs also claim the groundwater district board issued the permit to WSP without a state-approved groundwater management plan.
The lawsuit by WVWA is believed to be the first brought against the District in its ten-year history. The HTGCD was created by the Legislature in 2001 to manage the groundwater resources in western Hays County.
District Board President Jimmy Skipton (western Dripping Springs-Henly) and the District's General Manager Rick Broun both said today they had not received notice of the lawsuit. "If we're being served then we're going to have to put some money in for a lawyer, that's up to the board," said Skipton. "Once I see it, do I think it's a waste of time, yes."
A discussion and possible action regarding the lawsuit may be on the board's Thursday June 16 meeting agenda, scheduled 6pm at the Wimberley Community Center.
14 comments:
Taxpayers need to wake-up.
Both the WVWA and the HTGCD are funded by taxpayers. We will pay for WVWA frivolous lawsuit.
The court must cut WVWA's funding right now!
It doesn't matter which side you agree with; why are WE paying for this ego-driven showdown.
McMeans et al will chime-in soon to argue, but the facts are the facts. Hays County funds both of these organization.
No one wanted this lawsuit, least of all those having to file it.
This was brought on by the arrogant behavior of Skipton and the Dripping Springs majority on the HTGCD.
Wimberley and Woodcreek do not need another golf course nor more dense, urban-style development that both need massive amounts of groundwater.
Somebody has to draw the line before the greedy Gus's who either are themselves developers (or those who want to please them) recognize we are dealing with a finite water resource here.
Somebody had to step up and try to slow down the water wasting Wimberley Springs Partners and the current arrogance of Skipton and his two flunkys on the board.
How many bites at the apple do these malcontents get? They lost the first battle when the Permit was granted by the HTGCD on February 21st of this year against their loud protests. Then they were denied standing for not timely filing a request for a contested case hearing. Even though they were judged not entitled to a contested case hearing, they kept on protesting. Now, they file the same protest again as a law suit in Judge Jack Robison's 207th District Court. I'm sure that that fact won't be lost on the Judge.
These people have no case under the rules of the HTGCD, yet they won't take no for an answer. The only violation of law that occurred during the permit request was David Baker not reusing himself from the HTGCD Board hearing when he was both a Director of the GCD and Executive Director of the WVWA and knew he was aligned with the motley collection of protestors to the pumping permit for WSP. Baker and his organization are now a party to this law suit and criminal charges have yet to be filed against him. I hope Mr. Skipton will push for this charge to be filed against Baker.
Skipton failed to mention that this groundless suit is also a big waste of money as well as time.
By the way, Bob you gave the wrong case number. Actually, 11-1086 is the correct case number. The one you gave, 11-1065 is for a divorce case.
Duly corrected, thanks. Cause No. 11-1086.
I musta been thinking about Isaac's HB 3865 (empasis 65), groundwater bill, that got stalled in the lege.
Now I'm wondering how the HTGCD will afford the lawsuit. This must put commissioners court, particularly Commissioner Conley, in a real pinch, seeing as how they fund both the Jacob's Well Natural Area and the District.
Will they increase funding to the bare bones District in the next budget to cover cost of the suit?
Look to the City of Kyle vs Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District lawsuit for some clues on legal costs, and on how this suit might go.
@jon cobb
You are absolutely correct, the court had no place funding WVWA in the first place, they have proven time and time again that they are unfit to manage taxpayers money. This lawsuit will prove futile in the end seeing as how WVWA doesn't have a case at all.
@Whose best interest
"This was brought on by the arrogant behavior of Skipton and the Dripping Springs majority on the HTGCD."
I'm sure that's what you would like others to believe. The facts are that 1) WVWA doesn't have standing. 2) The challenge was filed after the deadline. The deadline which was, strangely enough, set-up by the HTGCD before any "evil Dripping Springs" or "pro-developement" members were on the board.
The County should get involved at this point. They should cease funding to both parties and restore sanity to the situation. Shame on WVWA for not telling the truth. But I, for one, would not expect anything else.
I think it is high time that Hays County end its support of the controversial WVWA especially when they file a suit against another governmental organization that is also funded by the County. The County has dumped about $5 million down the "Well" and has nothing to show for it except a few dilapidated frame buildings with an overgrown landscape and now a dry hole. Now to show their gratitude, the WVWA environmental activists are trying to put the County's citizens on the hook for even more dollars. What happened to the millions already given to these trouble makers that can't take no for an answer? Should the County be funding law suits of any kind for any left wing or right wing activist organization?
As Bob Ochoa suggested, check the City of Kyle vs. Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District lawsuit's costs and outcome; HERE
"...and more water en route from the plentiful Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer via a pipeline being developed by the Hays-Caldwell Public Utility Agency."
Water marketers support excess water demand in Hays County because they have water to sell and are getting the public to finance water deliver infrastructure. These water marketers finance our elected officials who in return provide the necessary public policy and public funding that ensure a highly profitable commercial venture.
As for the Hays County District Court ruling in the Edwards Aquifer case, its understood that if you go up against the Good Ole Boys in Hays County courts, you have to appeal to get justice.
If you want to see beyond the official rhetoric just "follow the money."
Those now wringing their hands about our tax dollars going to WVWA should be less disingenuous about who lead the commissioners' court in awarding those tax dollars.
They want it both ways.
Remember the two rules: Follow the money, and Get out of Hays County courts for justice.
Elected and agency officials at all levels are stacked against conservation of underground water, don't you know. The unstated official operating policy is use it or lose it, growth at all cost. LOSE IT is where we will all be in the long run. The aquifer cannnot support everyone who wants to move here. Insanity is the underlying driving force.
This lawsuit will go no where, especially in Hays County, as Mr. O'Dell points out. Justice is meted out by political favor and money. I hope plaintiffs are prepared to fight this all the way.
Not mentioned in the story but in the lawsuit is the conflict between WSP permit and Aqua Texas CCN. Aqua is supposed to be the sole water distributor in the area. WSP has no business with a utility-size water distribution permit. It is legally untenable per TCEQ rules and so would be WSP under the table assigning its water permit to Aqua. HTGCD board directors continue to show their ignorance and disdain of the fine points of water law and agency rules. Lots of points for the judge to consider and good grounds for appeal.
This is a thinly veiled TAKINGS lawsuit, protecting ones property and water from drying up by exorbitant and unsustainable use by another nearby neighbor. Very iffy to win this argument however. Talk to Mr. Johnson WSP attorney about his bottled water case in east Texas.
Bottom line, court(s) rule in favor of insanity, ala Kyle/BSEACD case. The little guys have no property rights protection in the state of Texas. The water belongs only to the moneyed interests. Adios groundwater. Hello high water bills and continuing control by private owned WATER HOGS.
Will Conley was all too willing to have the county buy Jacob's Well when it was "threatened" with nearby development, development which he probably had a financial interest in seeing not happen. Those guys bought some land, sat on it for a couple of years and made a tidy profit for doing absolutely nothing but making friends with Will Conley.
Those developers made out like bandits at the County's expense and Will Conley helped them at every turn.
When you blame the Jacob's Well organization for being in a strange predicament, look who put them in that place: Will Conley.
Will Conley, his buddy Winton Porterfield and these Dripping Springs HTGCD members are divvying up our water without our consent.
Conley thought he had bought himself some environmental credibility when he enabled a sweet deal for those developers, but it is backfiring on everyone involved. As they say, "The Truth Will Out", and there will be plenty to go around when this whole thing sees the light of day.
When you wonder why the HTGCD is so beholden to the County, look back a few years at the gang who designed this funding scheme to keep our water board weak and unable to feed itself, or to fend off threatened lawsuits.
Very little of this is helping us conserve our water or our quality of life, but it sure looks like it is designed to make somebody some money.
The water hogs and the private money interests in both Hays County and the US will almost always win out legally because America has nothing else to claim as "exceptional" except this antiquated success story called free enterprise.
Our country has so deteriorated in the last 30 years that making money is the only thing we still think we can do with some form of competence. Hence the greed of the right wingers and the mass compromise and silence of the left.
We are a failing empire that is trying to go back to the 1950s socially and back to the 80s economically. It won't work but we don't have any choice but to try and claim the lost empire.
Hays County is simply a microcosm of our nation: Stupid and greedy. The only difference is a major recession has avoided the state so far.
Sue the hell out of the water hogs, WVWA. Stop this doomed to fail mass development insanity.
Five Alarm said:
"Aqua is supposed to be the sole water distributor in the area. "
Says who? And who says they aren't?
"WSP has no business with a utility-size water distribution permit."
Exactly what permit are you referring to? If you are referring to the operating permit for pumping groundwater, that is not a distribution permit.
" It is legally untenable per TCEQ rules and so would be WSP under the table assigning its water permit to Aqua."
Feel free to cite the TCEQ rule.
"HTGCD board directors continue to show their ignorance and disdain of the fine points of water law and agency rules."
Perhaps you are the one that needs to brush up on the fine points of water law and agency rules?
"Lots of points for the judge to consider and good grounds for appeal."
Appeal by whom? If you are talking about the WVWA cult, they have no standing and no legitimate argument. But hey, this will just be one more stunt that infuriates the taxpayers from whose trough WVWA feeds from. Discovery should be fun.
This lawsuit is about alot more than simply the WVWA or Jacob's Well.
The WVWA is simply one litigant among several.
You should realize that this displeasure with the arrogance and corporate complicity of the HTGCD majority is a widespread phenomenon, not confined to any one group of people or ideology.
This group bringing this lawsuit is composed of some of this community's finest citizens who realize that our water resources are in bad hands and that we are being sold down the river.
@ No Tea Partier June 5, 2011 3:37 PM who said...
"This lawsuit is about alot more than simply the WVWA or Jacob's Well."
You're right. That's why it is important to engage in discovery so that the citizens can learn a little more about David Baker, Jack Hollon, Acords, & McWeenie. Jacobs Well is just a foil used by these folks over and over again. The taxpayers are tired of hearing about it and now own it.
"The WVWA is simply one litigant among several."
Lead litigant and possible funder of the litigation. Many of the "involved" are also part of McMeans' CARD or serve as "advisors" to CARD. McMeans' spouse isn't named as a party either, only McMeans.
"You should realize that this displeasure with the arrogance and corporate complicity of the HTGCD majority is a widespread phenomenon, not confined to any one group of people or ideology."
Widespread only among the minority of individuals in the local cult down there. There are five single member districts - each district chooses their own rep. You have yours so stop whining.
"Corporate complicity" - that's beyond the scope of your vocabulary. Please identify a "corporation" in any of this and what the "complicity" is of either the HTGCD board or this imaginary "corporation".
"This group bringing this lawsuit is composed of some of this community's finest citizens who realize that our water resources are in bad hands and that we are being sold down the river."
"Finest citizens"? Ha ha ha ha ha - legends in their own minds. "Our" water resources? Got news for you pal, "Jacobs Well" is not "yours" and it isn't groundwater. Cypress Creek isn't "yours" and it isn't groundwater. You aren't going to be able to illustrate a compelling connection with the permit and any connection is irrelevant anyway. You sure as heck can't come up with a compelling reason why HTGCD should be protecting the state's property to the detriment of the property owners as opposed to protecting the property of the people that the HTGCD was formed to protect for those property owners. Other than that, WSP obtained an operating permit to pump groundwater from WSP's own property.
What these frivolous, ne'er-do-well plaintiffs are is a group of individuals that want to be in charge of dictating how the actual owners of property should be subjected to the whims of this group. This group's philosophies aren't new, intelligent, or even meritorious. This group is a pitiful incompetent mimeograph of the Socialists of 70 years ago that they aspire to mimic. They want a forum such as a district where they can control everyone else. They are upset they lost the 2010 election and did not regain "control" after the 2011 election, upset there will not be a "super District", and upset that there isn't an authoritarian regime that they control. Nothing "fine" about them at all. But let's let the court decide that.
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