U.S. Water News Online
SAN ANTONIO -- The agency which helps manage use of the groundwater aquifer relied upon by many Central Texans has been considering whether it will regulate development within the groundwater recharge zone for the Edwards Aquifer, which feeds the state's largest springs.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority's board has voted to direct staffers to begin drafting recharge zone protection rules, including limits on how much of the land a developer could cover with rooftops and concrete.
Developing and paving surface land over the aquifer, which covers an 11-county area and supports unique aquatic species, limits the amount of water that replenishes the system. Lowered water levels in the aquifer have in the past threatened supplies for San Antonio residents and threatened an endangered species at Comal and San Marcos Springs, which rely on the Edwards.
Board Chairman Michael Beldon proposed naming a committee to recommend how far the board should go in making rules.
"I think we've waited too long already," said board member George Rice, an environmentalist and self-employed hydrogeologist. "These rules are long overdue.
"They do not want us to have any effective authority over impervious cover on the recharge zone," said Rice, adding that he was referring to state Sen. Ken Armbrister and owners and developers of recharge zone acreage. "I think most board members would agree with me that it is the developers that have gotten Armbrister to do this stuff."
Armbrister, D-Victoria, and others tried during the legislative session this year to strip the agency of any ability to regulate water quality, giving that power instead to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Local representatives blocked most of the efforts.
The agency's strategic plan, adopted by the board in April 2002, calls for it to launch a recharge zone protection program this year and to begin requiring permits for development by April. In Austin, regulations already limit development in aquifer recharge areas.
Rice, who was elected to the board of the 7-year-old agency last year, has proposed that the aquifer authority begin drafting protection rules.
"In order to protect the aquifer, we have to effectively control impervious cover on the recharge zone," Rice said. "If we can't do that, then our ability to protect the aquifer is severely crippled."
After narrowly avoiding losing all of its power to protect water quality, the authority should be judicious in assessing how it should jump into regulation, Beldon said.
"It's pretty crystal clear that our enabling legislation gives us wide-ranging powers, but those powers were substantially reduced in the last legislative session," he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating thousands of acres around San Antonio as critical habitat for what scientists called "indicator species" for the aquifer's health.
Armbrister, who co-authored legislation to create the authority in 1993, insisted this year that he never intended to give the authority the power to regulate water quality. But others say transcripts of committee and Senate floor debate in 1993 and when the bill was amended in 1995 indicate he thought otherwise at the time.
"I think of Armbrister as a bully," said Rice. "If you give in to a bully, does that mean he'll stop? I don't see how we could take steps to really protect the aquifer and not anger him."
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