Rain! Red Hawk Road, and Aqua rescues the Baptists

Commissioner Ford has offered her good offices to help find a solution. Conley apparently assisted in the background to maneuver the annoying sign change in the first place

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The Blanco River transformed after good rains Wednesday morning/RoundUp.

Update, Thursday Sept. 10, 12:30 p.m. – It's raining buckets in Wimberley, Dripping and San Marcos. LCRA's chief meteorologist Bob Rose says it will take 24 more inches of rain to break the drought and bring lake and river levels back to normal.

Wimberley, Tx – Wednesday morning's rain sure was a sight for sore eyes! The RoundUp received reports of a good downpour (up to 6 inches) in western parts of the county that required closings of low water crossings at CR 1492 at the Blanco River and at Wayside and Bendigo Lane. There were reports of between 2 and 4 inches in other places around Wimberley and further west. Not a drought-buster by any means, but very much appreciated.

San Marcos received a little rain as did other parts east. Unfortunately, most of the northern parts of the county missed out.

Dripping Springs and the 290 corridor north region remain in a deep and costly drought. The RoundUp bumped into a water delivery truck owner yesterday at the Dripping post office who said they are hauling water virtually non stop (up to 30,000 total gallons daily) to customers whose wells and rainwater tanks have gone dry. Some other (larger) rainwater systems, we are informed, are holding up pretty good. This was just one tanker truck. There are several other very busy haulers making deliveries.

Let's set our intentions to bring more rain for the entire region.

The Return of the Red Hawk Road sign

We contacted Pct. 4 County Commissioner Karen Ford in Dripping Springs this morning after hearing from sources of new developments in the disappearing Red Hawk Rd sign along FM 3237.

Red Hawk, you'll recall, was mysteriously replaced recently by this new Woodcreek Ranch Rd sign. We can thank Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley for having had a hand in the switch, and for causing some real confusion and irritation for many residents who knew not where their Red Hawk sign disappeared to.

Commissioner Ford now informs that a new sign will soon arrive listing both Red Hawk Rd and Woodcreek Ranch Rd.

"Frankly, there was a citizen who was very proactive who called our GIS department (Geographic Information Systems /911 Addressing Division) and talked to Steve (Floyd)," Ford said. "I guess they changed their (911 road) map to show that the two roads come into one point at 3237, and TxDOT saw that now they can legitimately put in advance warning signs for both of those roads."

Now isn't that just the nicest compromise. Red Hawk and Woodcreek Ranch road residents can now live happily ever after.

The boundary between Precincts 3 and 4 bump close to where the two roads come together at 3237, with one neighborhood partly in Conley's precinct and the other in Ford's. Three guesses which neighborhood Conley represents.

Commissioner Ford has offered her good offices to help find a solution. Conley apparently assisted in the background to maneuver the annoying sign change in the first place. This definitely has been an interesting case study in musical chairs – You take the Low Road and I'll take the High Road to Scotland.

Aqua Texas to Supply Water to New Baptist Church

Construction & pipe on the west side of 12;
below, the exit tunnel on the east side of 12

An Aqua Texas official confirms that the digging going on under RR 12 is for a water line for the new Baptist Church on the east side of 12. The line also will serve Ten Robles Inc.'s planned new development up the hill from the church.

Since its construction, the Baptist Church has been without a permanent potable water supply. Circumstances have forced the church to resort to purchasing its water from Aqua. Rumors were circulating that the church would pay an astounding $100,000 connection fee, but an Aqua official has told the RoundUp it won't be quite that expensive.

Aqua's moving its water and wastewater service across RR 12 puts it into easy reach of potentially much larger development plans along the bypass. It is a matter that our county and city officials – if they are not already – should be closely examining, and sharing what they know with the wider community. Allowing for-profit Aqua to expand may not be in the community's best long term interests. And as we all know, the people of Wimberley don't take kindly to big surprises.

Our Water Future, and Politics

There probably aren't more than a handful of well connected insiders who could answer this question: What will the water supply picture look like in the Wimberley Valley in ten or 15 years? Folks who rely on groundwater and are miles away from the nearest public water line probably have the most at stake in the answer.

Well owners everywhere in the region are seeing the effects of drought and encroaching development first hand – their wells are drying up. Too many to count anymore. Some are drilling deeper into a declining aquifer and others are resorting to rainwater collection. (Talk to any water well driller – they'll tell you business is booming and that water table levels are dropping like a lead balloon.) In a drought prone area such as ours, and with more wells going deeper into the ground, the picture's not looking too bright in the outlying years. It will take several drought-busting rains over the next several years to get the Trinity Aquifer, from which we all draw water, back up to relatively healthy levels.

Mayor and Wimberley Water Supply Corp. General Manager Tom Haley says one answer for the long term lies in one big regional water supply system with pipes connecting Wimberley Water, Aqua Texas and all the smaller public systems (that is, if Aqua hasn't bought them all up by then, including WWS). Where the water will come from to feed this regional system, Haley wasn't sure.

The mayor did say that Kyle has offered to sell water to Wimberley in a 5-year to 7-year deal at $4 per thousand gallons. But the $19 million pipeline construction cost from Kyle to Wimberley is prohibitive. Customers of WWS would wind up paying $6 per thousand gallons or more at the home tap. Alert citizens might want to check with the Texas Water Development Board from time to time, just in case, for water line construction grant applications from the city, GBRA, Aqua, and maybe LCRA.

From here on, water will remain the single biggest and most important issue confronting us all. Will we have an ample supply of water, who will control it and how much will it cost, can we save our old friend the Trinity Aquifer from sinking further into a death spiral?

It is becoming clear that we can not depend solely on our elected officials to help settle these questions fairly and intelligently and in everyone's best interests.

When we begin to hear rumors (reliable sources, we're told) that our State Rep. Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) will throw his support behind Precinct 2 County Commissioner Jeff Barton (D-Kyle/Buda) for a run at the county judge's seat next year, that sets off a three-alarm bell. Rose's actions, and inactions, in the legislature have proven he's no friend of our aquifer. His campaign account is heavily padded with developer special interest money. Barton's ethics are so compromised and his association with special interests, developers and road builders so close, that he has a bevy of Dem and Republican hopefuls out to unseat him in Pct. 2 next year.

The six reported challengers to Barton may be a calculated move to replace him with a friend and ally and allow Barton to ascend to the thrown as Hays County judge, with Rose's help and possibly with assistance from their other friend and ally, Pct. 3 Commissioner Conley. Conley is pushing to oust Pct. 4 Democratic Commissioner Karen Ford and replace her with a Republican water well driller candidate from Dripping Springs.

All of you alert citizens out there who are interested in holding on to your groundwater for as long as you can should watch this troika of politicians carefully. Their political success may ultimately spell doom for our aquifer, and our well water.