HTGCD reports wells going dry in northern Hays and steady declines throughout the district

"Non officially . . . we're probably getting two or three calls a week from people whose wells are going dry or their pumps are shutting off at more frequent intervals . . . "

Send your comments and news tips to online.editor@valleyspringcomm.net or to Dana Carmean, HTGCD manager, manager@haysgroundwater.com

Visit the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District web site here: www.haysgroundwater.com. Click on "Well Information" under the Quick Links menu for live updates on the district's well monitoring network.

By Bob Ochoa
RoundUp Editor

A friend e-mailed me the other day from the Hwy 290 Lube Express. She's new to the area and wanted to share information she had overheard of people talking with alarm about the spate of water wells going dry.

My friend is a bona fide "metro girl," a transplant from Dallas, where recent heavy rains have turned the landscape a lush green. Up there, "water well" and "aquifer" are not household words. Interestingly, the same Trinity Aquifer (mas or menos) that supplies groundwater to thousands of settlers and their families in Western Hays County, meanders its way in a fairly wide subterranean swath from here all the way to north Texas.

The tip from my friend was not surprising, considering our bone-dry drought conditions, and the hotter 'n heck summer heat that is only making things worse.

I called the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, a place, by the way, with a wealth of information about our blessed Trinity Aquifer. Wes Schumacher, a young UT-Austin grad and hydro geology major, answered the phone.

Wes and the district are on top of things, as I figured they would be.

So I asked, what's the latest with wells going dry in Hays County?

"Non officially, we're probably getting two or three calls a week from people whose wells are going dry or their pumps are shutting off at more frequent intervals," Wes allowed. "It all seems to be located in the triangle between Henley and the northern corner of Hays County – basically north of 290."

"If the wells are registered with us," he said, "then we will make note of the depth of the wells going dry and pinpoint which aquifers they were drawing from.

"Basically it's a progression of water use in the district. A long time ago when it was just ranch land and there were not a lot of drilling companies, people dug shallow wells, 90 to 100 feet deep. They are less common and tend to be in the upper Trinity Aquifer. All of the newer wells have been going into the middle (Trinity), 400 to 600 feet.

Continuous monitoring of 38 wells throughout
the district helps in measuring aquifer levels.

"The middle conditions are dropping. That's where most of the use is in the county, in the middle Trinity, where we try to focus because that's the primary use. It's those in the middle Trinity that are calling and saying, 'what's going on?'"

Wes went on to explain that the northern portion of our groundwater district where all these wells are going dry "is a separate subsurface flow from the groundwater flow that feeds the southern portion of the district."

Long story short, there's an "up dip" configuration of the aquifer – it slopes down from west to east and north to south. So as use continues or increases in the north/west, without plentiful recharge from rain, the water table in that region will drop below a home owner's well there first. The decline progresses southward and eastward.

"We are finding slow steady declines in wells throughout the district," Wes said.

Hello Wimberley valley.

Wes agreed, "they're doing a lot of business, the well drillers and water truckers" up there in the northwestern part of the county.

Thanks for the update, Wes.

It's an interesting aside, but not so strange coincidence, that a well known water well service and drilling company owner in Dripping Springs is making a run for county commissioner in Precinct 4. He's so enthusiastic about wanting to serve on the commissioners court, which has a fair amount of say over groundwater use and conservation (by way of subdivision rules), that he has officially announced his candidacy 18 months ahead of the election in November of 2010. Yes, he's running on the Republican ticket.

Howdy Will Conley, Republican County Commissioner of Precinct 3, Wimberley. Conley runs a car wash and detail business in San Marcos.

And to his buddy, State Representative Patrick Rose, a Democrat and Dripping Springs hometown boy no less, who plays the role of the horse in the "you can lead a horse to a dry hole but you can't make him see it" story.

Rose dabbles in real estate when he's not introducing special deal legislation for municipal utility districts in the county, usually for large high-end subdivision developments. He passed up an excellent opportunity to support our groundwater conservation district in the recently ended legislative session.

Can we ask, "Is the Precinct 4 commissioner candidate from Dripping (who is probably flush with cash from the up tick in business) running for county commissioner to represent the best interests of well owners and our aquifer, or the best interests of the water well drillers?"

Pray for rain :)