LETTER to the EDITOR
Dear Editor,
I wish to comment on your article “Two water bills could have far-reaching impacts.” My name is Marshall Jennings, retired Civil Engineer/Hydrogeologist and resident of Hays County since 1989.
I own seven acres of land overlying the Trinity aquifer with a private exempt well. My private well has been used with my enthusiastic permission as a monitoring well by the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, HTGCD, and the Texas Water Development Board, for more than 25 years. Following a career as a Research Hydrologist and Professional Engineer in Texas, with the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, in Texas, Virginia and Mississippi, I was the Hydrogeologist at the Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center at Texas State University, in San Marcos, TX where I did research on the Trinity aquifer in Central Texas and taught Hydrogeology.
In 2001, I was appointed to the Board of the HTGCD where my good friend Jack Hollon and I designed the initial HTGCD monitoring well network.
From about 2003 to 2005, I also ran a small hydrogeology company, performing county-approved Water Availability Studies for subdivisions in Hays, Blanco and Gillespie counties, all in the Trinity aquifer region of Central Texas.
In 2018, I was appointed, with good friends David Glenn, Chris Elliott, Rene Barker and Patrick Cox, to a Task Force on Trinity Aquifer Groundwater Models by then Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell.
This Task Force produced a report in 2020, reviewing all numerical groundwater models used in the Trinity aquifer in Hays County since the 1970s, and recommended development of a 3D coupled groundwater/watershed model based on the USGS MODFLOW 6 code.
Based on my longterm experience as a science and policy professional working in the Trinity aquifer in Hays County, and as a landowner volunteering my private exempt well for monitoring by HTGCD, I’d like to comment on HB 2812 and SB 2660 discussed in your article and now being considered by the Texas Legislature.
HB 2812 would have serious impacts on the HTGCD mission to conserve, preserve, protect, prevent waste and recharge Trinity groundwater resources for the benefit of all citizens living within the HTGCD boundaries. Only groundwater conservation districts such as HTGCD are authorized by the Texas Legislature through state water laws to provide this conservation function.
The idea that the Public Utility Commission, PUC, provides for groundwater management, conservation and sustainability is incorrect.
The PUC provides valuable economic regulation and sets fair utility rates but does not manage groundwater.
HB 2812 would deny HTGCD the Chapter 36 rules of the Texas Water Code, available for all groundwater conservation districts, for permitting that protects all users of private and exempt wells and avoids disastrous unlimited pumping under the Rule of Capture. As a private landowner I need the HTGCD to protect my domestic water supply from the chaos of “the law that says the biggest pump wins!”
HTGCD has never required my exempt well to be metered as Representative Isaac indicates but does and should require metering of permitted utility wells from over pumping their permit, especially during droughts such as we are now experiencing in our region of Texas.
In my opinion, HTGCD “is not regulating beyond reason” but is doing a good job of protecting my water rights as a landowner and also the beautiful and valuable springs that support our local economy.
We should all understand that the Trinity aquifer in Central Texas is a fragile groundwater resource subject to the threat of over pumping as the population in the region increases.
In 1990, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ, studied and declared our portion of the Trinity aquifer in nine Central Texas counties, a Priority Groundwater Management Area or PGMA, meaning that it is unlikely to provide a reliable long-term water source without careful groundwater management.
Far from a threat to my water rights, HTGCD is providing careful management and we as citizens should all support HTGCD. For this and other reasons I recommend the Texas Legislature dismiss consideration of HB 2812.
Ironically, SB 2660 filed by Senator Perry is a valuable and well-crafted bill that will strongly support effective groundwater management by HTGCD that will benefit all landowners and water users in Western Hays County.
I strongly urge passage of SB 2660. When HTGCD was established in 2001, the founding legislation made it a very weak GCD. As a Board member at that time, we had little funding and staff and I personally volunteered to do monthly monitoring of the 40-well monitoring network; some funding was provided by Hays County.
The adjacent Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer groundwater conservation district, also in a portion of the Trinity aquifer, received full Chapter 36 capability including reasonable production fees, while HTGCD has virtually no such capability. SB 2660 will correct this inequity and allow HTGCD to do the job it was intended to do for all citizens in our region.
The criticisms of Representative Isaac of SB 2660 in my opinion are baseless and contradict what all citizens want who use Trinity aquifer groundwater — fair, effective and equitable groundwater management of our Trinity aquifer for all citizens, with the hope of long-term sustainability for those who come after us.
Marshall Jennings, Dripping Springs
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