Water a potential big issue in next legislative session

Note: The story below by Kate Galbraith takes another look at the growing importance of water matters in Texas. We'll try to contact newly elected State Rep. Jason Isaac of Hays County for his views. Meanwhile, the local Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Board of Directors meets today at the Wimberley Community Center at 4 p.m. The District's long term aquifer management plan (Desired Future Conditions required by the Texas Water Development Board) will again be on the agenda and open for public comment. Also on the agenda is possible action on a water waste agreement with Aqua Texas, and possible action on granting of three-year pumping permits for Aqua, Wimberley Water Supply and Dripping Springs Water Supply.

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Read the complete story in the Texas Tribune at this link: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-environmental-news/water-supply/will-water-rights-be-on-the-legislatures-agenda/

By Kate Galbraith
November 17, 2010

Next legislative session, during the few minutes not taken up with the budget, redistricting and immigration, an old stand-by of an issue could creep onto the agenda: water.

Observers say legislative proposals on groundwater rights are probable, given that Texas is just wrapping up a controversial process for planning the allocation of water from aquifers, while environmentalists will be pushing more measures for water conservation.

The discussions will be amplified because the Texas Water Development Board, which finances water and wastewater infrastructure projects around the state, is up for review by the Sunset Advisory Commission, as is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates water pollution.

Water "should be an important issue in this next session," says Russell Johnson, a water law expert with the McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore law firm who has done work for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Texas Wildlife Association on groundwater-related matters. However, he adds, "whether it will be or not in light of all the other things that are happening this legislative session is an open question."

Last session, one of few notable water-related bills to pass was a conservation bill carried by state Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, that tightened water-efficiency requirements for toilets sold in Texas, as well as for faucets or shower heads. (The only other state to enact similar requirements for toilets is California.)

The biggest water issue before the Legislature is likely to be balancing the long-term health of Texas' aquifers with property rights. The state has just completed an intensive planning process, established by the Legislature in 2005, in which local authorities decide how much they will allow their aquifers to be depleted in 50 years (the resultant numbers are called the "desired future conditions" of the aquifers).

The Texas Water Development Board is processing these aquifer-depletion numbers and will soon send back to local authorities calculations on how much water per year they can draw down, given their 50-year outlooks.

Ms. Galbraith reported on clean energy for The New York Times from 2008 to 2009, serving as the lead writer for the Times' Green blog. She began her career at The Economist in 2000 and spent 2005 to 2007 in Austin as the magazine's Southwest correspondent. A Nieman fellow in journalism at Harvard University from 2007 to 2008, she has an undergraduate degree in English from Harvard and a master's degree from the London School of Economics.