There was a strong sense from some of the statements made and not so subtle posturing that this board will require some very close monitoring by the public and all well owners
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Click on the link for information about the Texas Water Development Board's groundwater management programs and the status of the MAG and DFC reports cited below: http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/GwRD/GMA/gmahome.htm
New board members, from left: Joan Jernigan (District 5/Wimberley),
Mark Key (District 3/eastern Dripping and south to just outside
of Wimberley),and Jimmy Skipton (District 1/Henly & Dripping).
Mark Key (District 3/eastern Dripping and south to just outside
of Wimberley),and Jimmy Skipton (District 1/Henly & Dripping).
Update, Thursday May 20 – We are awaiting confirmation of the next scheduled board meeting.
By Bob Ochoa
RoundUp Editor
We'll have a more in-depth story later this week on this morning's meeting and changing of the guard of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Board of Directors.
After a long and bitterly fought election May 8, three new board members were sworn in at Dripping Springs City Hall at the district's regularly scheduled meeting, which had been postponed from last week.
Jimmy Skipton was elected president by the new board. David Baker (District 4/Woodcreek and surrounding region) was elected to remain as board vice president. Mark Key of District 3 (who defeated long time incumbent Andrew Backus by two votes) will serve as board secretary/treasurer.
After all the formalities were dispensed with, the new board dug right in to a rather meaty agenda. The question of whether to lift a moratorium on new commercial groundwater permits was briefly debated and tabled for the board's next meeting.
The moratorium and its close relationship with two very important reports also was discussed – the MAG (managed available groundwater due soon from the Texas Water Development Board) and DFC (desired future conditions due soon from the local district and the Region 9 priority groundwater management area).
The reports are key because they essentially will set the amount of groundwater available for use in the Hill Country and western Hays County, and they will set the bar for how much groundwater can be allocated and permitted for current and future users.
Who will win, current residents on wells who wish to conserve the groundwater remaining in the aquifer, or commercial interests and new development that will draw more water and further threaten the supply for all?
New board member Mark Key, right, will perhaps become
the most vocal "property rights – take all you want" conservative
ideologue on the board. He appears willing to at least listen to old
aquifer hands like Jack Hollon, who retired from the board today
after ten years of voluntary service.
Anyone not up to speed on the requirements, consequences, opportunities and details of the MAG and DFC should try to catch up sooner than later. How they are applied in policy by this new HTGCD Board will determine if our aquifer is treated as a resource to be mined and used up or as a resource to be conserved and preserved for future generations and will keep our streams and rivers flowing.Reports that the world would end early if certain candidates were elected to the groundwater district board may have been slightly exaggerated. Nevertheless, there was a strong sense coming from some of the statements made and not so subtle posturing that this board will require some very close monitoring by the public and all well owners.
20 comments:
The editor really does a disservice by failing to mention some of the highlights of the meeting.
Prior to the swearing in of the new board members, two of the staff (Dana Carmean & Cathy Balch) revealed that they had secretly tendered their resignations and that their last day would be May 27, 2010. These two staff members did not stick around for the swearing in of the new board members. Andrew Backus did not attend the meeting at all.
After being sworn in, Joan Jernigan attempted to have the "old regime" control the agenda for the HTGCD board by motioning to vote on making David Baker president of the HTGCD.
You could have heard a pin drop during the very uncomfortable (for some) "pregnant pause" when the "second" did not occur. Baker asked whether anyone would second the motion.* Another uncomfortable silence (for some) as the remaining board members would not do so.
Another board member then motioned that Jimmy Skipton become the next president. That motion was seconded by Mark Key. The board held a vote and Jimmy became the president. Joan was the sole "nay".
David Baker was subsequently designated as vice-president. Mark Key became the secretary/treasurer.
Jimmy Skipton attempted to get an update on current contracts, employees, etc. He asked where the staff members ran off to since today was a workday and they were still on the payroll.
The existing agenda was set by the former board, not the newly installed board members. The new board plowed through the agenda items one by one.
Regarding "The question of whether to lift a moratorium on new commercial groundwater permits was briefly debated but tabled for the board's next meeting" - HTGCD will move towards administrative approvals for lower permit levels instead of outright banning new non-exempt wells. The issue to be resolved will be the threshold below which applications will be administratively granted. It was pointed out how other GMA9 GCDs were administratively approving permits in the millions of gallons per year and that HTGCD was being unreasonable in adopting a complete prohibition stance. I thought David Baker mentioned 1 acre-foot or less per year (it might have been 1/2 acre-foot, can't remember) as a possible candidate for automatic administrative grant.
Mark Key asked to place on the agenda a program for educating students on the source of water and conservation. Joan was opposed to that and wanted to defer. Not sure what her opposition to education programs is. Maybe we'll learn more next week.
*If a pregnant pause could make a sound, this one would have been on par with the boom of a nuclear explosion.
Agreed, this board deserves watching as all boards in Hays and surrounding counties do. Water is important and the drought is not over just suspended for a while.
The meeting went fairly well considering the intensity of the campaign. We have three new board members and we need to let them do their job and not be too quick to judge them. The only real disappointment in the meeting was when the outgoing President Doug Wierman and two members of the Staff (Dana Carmean and Kathy Balch) who are resigning effective the 27th) hurriedly grabbed their stuff and walked out as soon as the new members were sworn in. Sadly, Andrew Backus didn’t even have the courtesy to show up for the meeting; I suspect he was home pouting as he is prone to do. Jack Hollon, to his credit, behaved admirably (he always does) and was very welcoming to the new members to the point of staying for the whole meeting and offering his help with the transition.
Good Luck JImmy, Joan and Mark.
If you remember there was an accusation that if “certain candidates” were elected the staff would be fired. Well it looks like Kathy and Dana are trying to get their selves fired just to fulfill that warped prophecy. They were known to be campaigning for Backus and his two tagalongs, so this was to be expected. Today sealed the fate of Andrew Backus’ political career. What a waste, the mind of a genius the temperament of a two year old.
Backus skipping out on a HTGCD meeting? Really? ... what else is new. As long as Key shows up to the meetings, he will have a leg up on his predecessor.
Wow, let's not be too obvious about the anomosity and contempt for Backus. He sure must have told too many water gluttons to piss off.
No disrespect to the hostile Al-Anonymouses above, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what is going to happen to the HTGCD Developer-ment Board. Pre-election rhetoric was probably for real, so sure, give them a few weeks to watch the agenda unfold.
David Baker is certainly a reasonable and economically balanced guy. So if the HTGCD becomes dysfunctional, we will all know why.
Will Aqua Texas become the Hays County BP? Time will tell.
Andrew Backus was not able to attend the meeting. His mother has been ill and her birthday, I believe was this week - she turned 91. He flew back east to be with her late last week. It is unfortunate that there are some that want to continue to put mis-information out there. I know that the new members of the board would be disappointed in the comments that are posted here today.
Anon #6, If that is the case, why did Doug Weirman not state that when he listed the members present at the start of the meeting? He simply said “Andrew Backus” and kind of shrugged his shoulders with the look of doubt on his face.
When Jimmy Skipton asked where the staff was, after the swearing in, Rick Broun answered, “They had work to do back at the office”. That answer was a very weak lie and everybody knew it. The walkout was nothing more than a childish demonstration of sour grapes. I will give Andrew Backus the benefit of doubt on his absence.
Such small talk in these comments. We've got a new board, people, with a completely different outlook in how they plan to manage (or mismanage) our aquifer. And they've got the votes, with Skipton, Key and Nesbitt. I suggest that everybody who owns property and a well in western hays county watch these codgers like a hawk. There's not an ounce of groundwater science know-how or management experience between the three of them. Their agenda will be to take what they can from the aquifer as quick as they can and parcel it out to their developer friends. Keep in mind also that Nesbitt's term is up next May and so is David Baker's. The aquifer bandits will be out again in full force looking for a complete takeover of the district.
I'm not a big fan of Backus at all but I appreciate Anon #6 clarifying on his absence. This blog is notorious for making assumptions before ever investigating what the truth is. It was unfair to Backus and just plain tabloid journalism.
Mark, Jimmy, and Greg are property owners and they support property owners. Backus tried taking away your right to access water altogether. Backus is gone and that's one of the reasons why. No need to re-visit the past.
Dropping insinuations about the new board members is silly. You are welcome to show up at the public meetings but apparently have chosen to remain ignorant as opposed to attending the meetings yourself.
Although you snipe about "watching", your own failure to attend and reliance upon gossip has resulted in such a distorted view of reality. What a hypocrite.
The RoundUp was aware that Mr. Backus was out of town, in Vermont, visiting his ailing mother. That information was not a part of the story. The fact of his absence from the meeting was brought up in the comments.
For those who continue to blindly bad mouth Andrew Backus it should be noted that Andrew is in New Hampshire taking care of his ailing mother, or in North Carolina with his sister-in-law who is fighting a tough battle with cancer.
It's better to appear stupid than to speak out and erase all doubt.
Voters...and especially non-voters...get what they deserve. I don't expect to hear a single complaint from anyone who failed to vote in this election. To complain now would be hypocritical.
"Kathy and Dana are trying to get their selves fired just to fulfill that warped prophecy. They were known to be campaigning for Backus and his two tagalongs,"
I don't believe you are telling the truth. Give the readers just one shred of evidence that you are not making this up because it suits you.
When I read the comments posted here I fear I must use the power of interpretation in understanding the definitions. Wall Street has learned to take a common sense title like "trash collector" and glamorize it to now be called "waste management." Or what was once called a "gym" is now called "health club."
Based on the comments in this blog, in light of the new HTGCD, I will use my own deductive reasoning to make these semantical clarifications:
"Board President" really means "front man."
"Supports property owners" really means "freedom to use water mindlessly."
"...tried taking away your right to access water altogether" really means "forced homeowners and developers to understand that water is not an infinite resource to shamelessly waste and exploit for gluttony and profit."
Come on, Jimmy, Mark and Greg, show all us cynics, critics and water hugging lefties that you really are competent and have the insight and intelligence to organize the greater community behind a smart water management plan that works to ensure the quality of life for our children and grandchildren - one that does not cater to developers and greedy special interests whose sole purpose is to make quick profits at the expense of our region's long term water affordability and purity.
Or, you can show us that instead the three of you are just eunuch lackeys for the commercial real estate interests that will want to contract our water out to some utility profiteers or Wall Street firms that don't give a crap about us saving one of the best natural environments in the Southwest.
And please don't give us some rhetoric about water and "unregulated free markets" being the best thing for our future generations. We have heard that ignorant rationalization before. Which is why we have BP, Massey Energy, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Blackwater, to name a few.
Real men care more about their community and the legacy they leave their family's family than making easy sleazy money being ticket takers at the Developer's Ball - at the expense of the people who trust you.
Tell me, Jimmy, Mark and Greg, are you going to be real men? If not, say so now so all us caring and compassionate types can plan to sell our houses at the very next housing market top and leave the resulting desecration to Bubba.
Most anonymous,
So under your view of the world if a person is allowed to access their own groundwater, they must inherently be wasteful, water gluttons? How offensive to the vast majority if not all of the well owners in the district.
Apparently your distorted view of reality is supposed to justify denying homeowners access altogether (which is precisely what the former HTGCD board spent a lot of money on attorneys and lobbyists to accomplish). The former board set up a resolution to prohibit any new "commercial" wells (i.e., non-exempt, see Board Resolution 20080424) and then tried to declare that all new wells would have to be deemed "non-exempt" wells and that any existing exempt wells would be re-characterized as non-exempt wells when the property was sold.
Your own ridiculous policy is precisely why there are for profit water utilities whose investors objective is to mine and sell as much water as possible. You've created your own demons.
In the meantime, please sell why you can so that others need not listen to your illogical rants. If you do sell, then be sure to thank those who worked to ensure that you could transfer your well and the use of your well to whoever bought your property. Surely, forcing the buyer to have to obtain a permit would have ensured that your sale would hinge on whether such a permit was granted.
You should also thankful that you don't pay transfer fees, or production fees, or have to be subjected to unwarranted intrusion onto your property. These issues have nothing to do with the amount of water consumed. Your use of the term "water glutton" is misplaced and only serves to illustrate the depth of your ignorance. Attend a meeting or two. If this is your example of deductive reasoning, it's obvious that your education is lacking.
Again, IC De-light is living in the darkness of his own anger and misplaced definition of property rights. Property ownership is not about unrestricted water rights - as if individual private property is some new religion that usurps consideration for the larger common good.
According to his logic, I should be able to shoot my rifle in my 1/2 acre land next to other properties while kids are playing in the yard. Or why don't I just set up a group home for ankle monitored sexual predators in the family neighborhood?
It sounds like IC-Delight is one of the property rights Christian extremists who believes profit and individual choice are always more important than the community. Sorry, but that is antiquated thinking.
Jesus is rolling over in his grave as he watches his name exploited by the greedy, self centered Republican Party Christian values proponents in the new religion of profit and property rights over community and mankind. The property rights religious extremists are heretics to true Christian values.
Water is not your property. It is God-created common resource that must be shared and managed by all.
These water pirates Skipton, Nesbitt and Key act like they just fell off the turnip wagon – as if there's not a 30 year history of a much declining water table in our Trinity Aquifer. Fellas, read up on the history and science before you start willy nilly giving away permits (or selling them under the table). Wells are having to go deeper and deeper. Before too long the straws will start reaching down into the last good reservoirs we've got. The last thing we need right now is our groundwater being managed by a trio (majority vote) of dumbbells.
Much of the “Science” behind the claim of shrinking aquifers is a pack of lies created by liberal water huggers some of which believe that you can talk nicely to water and change its molecular structure. Google “Dr. Emoto”. Some of his followers are right here in our area and preach this nonsense, Fools!
If no one approved another well, the aquifer will continue to rise and fall due to natural factors. The answer is to get some other source of water in here quickly since the people are coming and the developers are just accommodating their needs.
I will bet most people do not know that the Trinity Aquifer is huge and goes all the way up to Oklahoma. Who is watching the development on the Oky end?
To Evangelical Liberal:
Re: "Property ownership is not about unrestricted water rights - as if individual private property is some new religion that usurps consideration for the larger common good"
Water rights are already restricted. However, the old regime tried to ensure that future residential wells would be prohibited. You idea of a "larger common good" is that you should be able to keep your well but that no one else should be able to put one in. I've seen your idea of "common good" before.
Re: "It sounds like IC-Delight is one of the property rights Christian extremists who believes profit and individual choice are always more important than the community. Sorry, but that is antiquated thinking."
Your hearing needs adjustment. Where did "Christian extremists" come from? Where did religion become part of the conversation? As far as "antiquated thinking", the Constitution is about 200 years old. I'd call it old, but certainly not antiquated.
Communitarianism - the belief that community is more important than individual and deserves to have power in itself - may sound appealing
until one runs into reality of what communitarianism means. Calls for “community” are historically accompanied by oppressive sentiments such as nationalism, militarism, racism, and religious and other intolerances. Community organizations such as tribal separatists, the KKK, militias, gangs, mafias, old-boy networks, and religious cults, are the real-world manifestation of communitarianism - and none of them are benign.
Exactly who decides the "community good" in your world? Apparently only those that you approve of. There have always been potential leaders who claim superior intelligence, insight, and ability to recognize, understand, and articulate the 'common good' and who seek to impose their idea of a good society on others. In actual communities, this tends to be the interests or good of persons in power or majorities of their members.
Individuals and their rights should not be sacrificed for the sake of an abstract concept such as the "public interest" or the "common good".
For all your talk of "community", there is a larger "community" of which you are a part of. That larger community is bound by the Constitution which clearly establishes individual rights.
I vehemently disagree with your false implication that having a right means only that it will be abused and therefore you should be able to disregard such rights. You seem to enjoy first amendment rights. I don't think you would be too pleased with an outright ban on speech under the misguided belief that allowing speech equates to abuse of speech. Regulation is one thing. Regulation down to zero is a taking. The Constitution doesn't condition your rights based upon when you were here.
IC DeLight,
You are correct about some aspects of your response. But the US Constitution can also be used to whip proponents of sensible regulation and monitoring of extraordinary issues such as water. Individual freedom cannot mean freedom from individual responsbility.
I also stand corrected with the religious extremist label. I sense, however, that such a deformed mindset exists prominently in the distorted free enterprise argument.
In the end I seriously doubt these new Board members know anything tangible about the larger issue of water management for the common good of everyone. And even if they were willing to learn, the fact that they did not appoint David Baker as the President shows the ignorantly political nature of this democratic coup d'etet.
And I appreciate your civil response.
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