Water hopes, fears keenly felt here

By Bill SontagFeature WriterIt’s only recently…that Westerners have begun to ask where their water goes, what it costs, and what it earns.-- Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert, 1986“We don’t want water harvesters coming down here taking our water and selling it to San Antonio,” said Benny’s Café coffee regular Gene Chapman, last week.“We really need to control it somehow,” Chapman added, capturing the sentiment of many business owners, ranchers, bankers, politicians, civic leaders and homeowners across Val Verde County.It’s been two decades since Marc Reisner published his now-classic Cadillac Desert, the American West and Its Disappearing Water. Reisner died six years ago, but only recently has the importance of his message – and tomes and articles published by countless others since – stirred city and county civic leaders here to long-range, protective action.Two years ago, Jerry Simpton, president of The Bank & Trust, was the architect of an effort to create a Val Verde County Groundwater Conservation District. The effort failed because local consensus fell apart as proposed authorizing legislation was sought from the Texas legislature. Many here still feel that such a district is the best way to ensure the protection demanded by Chapman and most area residents who cherish the abundance of water that has allowed Del Rio to flourish for nearly 150 years. Getting there is a path strewn with eggshells.Simpton believes the thrust now is to convert competing water interests into consensus-building conservation advocates. “A groundwater conservation district has the ability to regulate all these issues, and it’s all in the state water code,” Simpton told Del Rio LIVE! June 12. There are about 90 groundwater conservation districts in Texas, and they govern water use of more than half the state.Beau Nettleton, Val Verde County Commissioner, agreed with Simpton, warning in a June 20 interview with LIVE! that a groundwater conservation district is the preferred insurance package against state regulators stepping in where local governments fear to tread. “The population bases are going to push legislators to control the water. It’s coming, because they’re going to run out of water. And they’ll go to these small districts and rural areas, and if they can’t get the water from these small areas, they’re going to push the legislators to take control of groundwater the same way they did for surface water.“Because it’s all about votes. It’s all about population. Any way you want to cut it, that’s what it’s about,” exclaimed Nettleton. “The bottom line is that there’s only so much, and as the bigger towns grow, the votes are going to mandate where water goes. And if you don’t get a dog in the fight, and get your protection in place and your needs taken care of, you’re going to find yourself in a very interesting position. It may not happen in the next legislative session. It may be five, ten years from now, but ultimately it will happen,” Nettleton reiterated that only local control, authorized as a groundwater conservation district, can shield the future of Val Verde County from state control and commercialization of the aquifer resource.“This is about my children, and my grandchildren, and your grandchildren, and all the things this community wants. You want to talk about economic development? We can talk about all the economic development, but if there ain’t no water, there ain’t nobody movin’ here. Nowhere in the law does the groundwater district have the right to override private property rights. All they have is the right to control and protect. But, there is no protection now. Yes, the city can go pump as much as it wants, the landowners can go pump as much as they want, but the guy with the biggest pump is going to win. Every single time,” Nettleton said.Pivotal to the issue of who owns, uses and regulates the rich subterranean resource is Texas’ “rule of capture.” The state is one of the last to stubbornly hang onto the philosophy that, regardless of flowage impacts, water can be “captured” directly below a surface, and it becomes the property of the owner.Nettleton simplified the impact of the “rule of capture” in the absence of a groundwater conservation district: “Well, the bottom line is that, if you don’t have one, the possibility could happen that somebody could come in here, drill a well, and sell water, pump the aquifer completely dry, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. The rule of capture is in place. There’s nothing stopping anybody today from pumping the springs dry, or the aquifer dry, there’s nothing. The “rule of capture is,” you own the land, you own the water under it, you have the right to take as much of it as you want. They call it the “law of the biggest pump.” Now, surface water is different. But underground water, you own the land, and you own what’s under it. A groundwater district doesn’t have the authority to take that right away from you. All they have the authority to do is to make sure you don’t do something that affects your neighbor, or the aquifer, or something like that.Nettleton said a groundwater conservation district is vital so assessment and control of constituent water needs are documented. “And when we go to make the argument of what our needs are, we’ve got the district, we’ve got the research, we’ve got the proof. Otherwise you don’t get a seat at the table,” Nettleton said.A long and continuing process of data collection follows establishment of a groundwater conservation district, each bit of information feeding and strengthening the district’s positions, but Nettleton said patience is required. “It took the Edwards Aquifer years, and years, and years to get to where they’re at. But, they can tell you exactly when Barton Springs is going to dry up, exactly when it’s going to stop flowing here and start flowing there, and rainfall – how much the aquifer is going to come up with an inch of rain, and when they need to shut down, because this spring’s going to quit flowing – and it took years of data collection to get there.“What we don’t have is what happens when it rains 10 inches in Sonora, or Ozona, or the northern part of this county. Is the Devils River directly connected to the San Felipe Springs or Goodenough Springs? Is it separate, or is it intertwined? You don’t know those answers yet, until you get all that in place. And that’s going to cost a lot of money and a lot of time. It’ll take three years to put that data in place,” Nettleton said.On June 21, Nettleton chaired a meeting of a dozen local citizens with vital interests in finally seeing a groundwater conservation district established. All present for the Val Verde County Water Advisory Board meeting seemed to share interest in gaining consensus on key issues before State Rep. Pete P. Gallego is again asked to sponsor authorizing legislation for a district.Rancher John Weston requested consistency, too, a rule-of-thumb for Val Verde Groundwater Conservation District regulations “that don’t change when the [political] winds change.” Again, Nettleton emphasized the urgency for community accord on any proposals. “Either we agree, or we walk out of the room,” he said. Several participants stressed the importance of obtaining carefully researched data about aquifers in Val Verde County, but not as a condition of getting the district authorized and functioning.Scott McWilliams, Devils River Project Director for The Nature Conservancy, explained that his organization has targeted both the Devils River and the Pecos River for hydrologic research.Simpton argued that gathering springflow information and aquifer data to support the proposal for a district is hopeless. “We’re not trying to manage the aquifer at this point.” McWilliams agreed, saying such research will require years of data collection. He sees the pressing need for an organizational effort now, explaining that the proposal for the county’s groundwater conservation district must be completed by Nov. 13 to get a spot on the agenda of the Texas legislature.Nettleton was elected to chair the advisory board’s efforts to work on new legislation for the Val Verde County Groundwater Conservation District, over the sole objection of City of Del Rio City Attorney David Sorola. The day before the city hall meeting, Nettleton said, “We’re looking like we’re fixin’ to start another very long drought – this is a huge issue. Water is the next – well, it’s going to be as valuable as oil. The community can’t grow without it. “You hear people talking about how the next wars will be over water? It’s a big issue … My objective when this is said and done is that all the needs of this county are protected for the next 100 years,” Nettleton said. Monday, June 26, Del Rio Mayor Efrain Valdez expressed his enthusiasm for the groundwater conservation district project, too.“The last council, I think, was very naïve in going against a water district. You’ve got to take all the factors into account, before you go to the state and say we’re against this, but anything that would protect us from not being superceded by any state agency – coming over and taking control of our water – then I’d be for it. Just for our protection we need this, as a city,” Valdez said. Councilman Mike Wrob agreed with Valdez: “I definitely think we need to have a groundwater conservation district. Selling water is not inherently an evil thing. If there are places that need water, fine, but the seller probably shouldn’t get one hundred percent of the proceeds.”The next meeting of the Val Verde County Water Advisory Board is set for July 11, at 10 a.m. in the Kennedy Room of the Del Rio Civic Center, 1915 Veterans Blvd. The public is invited to attend.EXCEPT IN TEXAS ...I understood when I was just a child that without water, everything dies. I didn’t understand until much later that no one ‘owns’ water. It might rise on your property, but it just passes through. You can use it, and abuse it, but it is not yours to own. It is part of the global commons, not ‘property’ but part of our life support system.-- Marc de Villiers, Water, 2000Questions or comments? Contact Bill Sontag directly.