Jan Wrede
Cibolo Nature Center

Could it be? Are we really going to have another very dry winter, spring and summer? Is it time to get serious about water conservation? The water in Cibolo Creek is still running over the duck pond dam in town, but I am having trouble remembering when was the last time we had any significant rain and none of the TV weathermen predict any rain in their forecasts.

I looked up recent rainfall recordings for Kendall County.

In 2007, Kendall County had an annual rainfall of nearly 60 inches, which was almost double our average annual 34 inches. Most of that rain came in the first half of the year. In the last six months, we have had 6 inches. That puts us 11 inches behind normal for the months since August.

To answers some of my questions about how rainfall affects our groundwater, I called and talked to Micah Voulgaris, general manager of the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District.

In 1990, the Texas Water Commission declared the Texas Hill Country

(including Kendall County) a Priority Groundwater Management Area.

This means that our water availability and quality will be at risk within the next 50 years. CCGCD is the agency responsible for conserving, preserving, recharging, protecting and preventing waste of groundwater in aquifers within Kendall County.

Mr. Voulgaris told me that CCGCD now has 30 test wells in the county that are monitored regularly and allow us to track the availability of our groundwater. He said that the vast majority of these well are south of the Guadalupe River, where most of the development is occurring. The water levels in these wells were the lowest ever recorded in the summer of 2006. In spite of the outstanding rainfall of early 2007, these wells have not recovered to what are considered “normal” levels for this time of year.

In addition, records kept by CCGCD confirm that the groundwater levels in our area rise and fall with the seasons.

Usually, in the late fall, winter and spring (when we have rain) the groundwater levels rise and in our frequent hot, dry summers the groundwater levels drop.

The CCGCD manager explained to me that residents of Kendall County need to realize that the summer decline of groundwater levels is made worse by human behavior. He says, “As soon as the grass begins to grow, land owners start landscape watering and continue through the summer with the most outdoor watering occurring when the groundwater is already the lowest. As soon as the weather cools in the fall and everyone stops watering their lawns, the groundwater levels in our test wells rebound. If we could ban outdoor watering altogether, Kendall County would probably not have a groundwater shortage at all.”

A ban on landscape watering? That certainly would be drastic and could happen in a devastating drought, but why wait until our wells are running dry? Once we realize the negative impact of our landscape watering habits, can’t we voluntarily do the right thing?

Let’s save our water for the most important uses like drinking and bathing. How about right now?

Today, Kendall County is in Stage 2 drought restriction.

That means outdoor lawn and landscape irrigation by hose-end sprinklers, automatic sprinklers, soaker hoses, or drip irrigation is limited to 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. of the following day. Hand-held hoses or hand-held buckets are allowed at any time. Washing of automobiles, trucks, trailers, boats, airplanes, and other types of mobile equipment must be done over pervious cover.