By Linda Byrne
Editor

Texas is one of the leading states in the nation for water planning but lags far behind other states in giving counties the tools to deal with development, attendees at a water symposium were told at a Sept. 25 meeting at the Boerne Convention Center.

The event was sponsored by the Hill Country Alliance, a nonprofit agency seeking to raise public awareness of the need to preserve the resources and heritage of the region.

According to Sean Garretson, president of Pegasus Planning, the population in a 17-county Hill Country area is projected to double by 2030, reaching 4.3 million people.

Making matters more difficult is the fact that unlike commercial properties, residential development does not pay for itself, costing $1.26 in services for every dollar of development, Garretson said.

Garretson said in the 17 Hill Country counties, 90 percent of the land is in unincorporated areas, which means there are few restrictions or development requirements because Texas counties have no regulatory powers.

The Hill Country Alliance has vowed to press the matter in the next session of the Legislature.

According to Robert J. Potts, president of Dixon Water Foundation, water management in Texas is complicated.

He said Texas has different legal rules for groundwater and surface water while most other states, especially in the western United States, regulate water in an integrated fashion.

“In Texas, for various historical reasons, we look at them separately, ” Potts said.

“Our surface water is regulated centrally by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and they give out permits for water use from a lake or river. Groundwater is the opposite and is generally available to the landowner through the rule of capture, … and groundwater permitting, if done at all, is done locally.”

The complexity doesn’t stop there. Water planners must abide by other quirks in the law about water transfers, he said.

“What makes things interesting in planning for population growth is that you have almost a mirror image in where you can move water. “You would think that surface water, being regulated centrally, would be available statewide. But state law does not allow you to take surface water from one watershed to another,” Potts said.

“Groundwater, even though regulated locally, is not allowed to be restricted from being sold around the state. So you have small groundwater districts … with tremendous demand on them from people who want to move that water elsewhere and have a legal right to do it.”

These restrictions make it difficult for water planners, the experts said.

Nevertheless, Potts said, education and awareness have a positive effect on the overall water picture. He pointed to the Edwards Aquifer Authority as an example of what effective oversight can produce.

“If you look at 1999 and compare pumping permits from the Edwards Aquifer to 2005, they were both very dry years, … but in 1999, when there was no permitting, … we used 14 percent more water than in 2005 ever though the population had grown in those intervening six years by 12 percent,” he said of the Edwards region.

“The only difference was, in 2005 you had permits in place that made people start thinking and restricting their use.”

The alliance and co-sponsor Schreiner University will have three more events in upcoming months to discuss water issues.

The forum was taped and will be broadcast on Texas Public Radio, KTXI 90.1 at 7 p.m. on Friday.

For more information, visit the sponsors’ Web sites: www.schreiner.edu/water/index.htm or www.hillcountryalliance.org.