U.S. Water News Online
SAN ANTONIO -- The board of the Edwards Aquifer Authority has voted to move ahead next year with drafting rules to better protect water quality -- including controversial measures that could limit the extent of development atop the recharge zone.
"You're looking at a happy face," Bexar County board member and hydrologist George Rice said after the vote on his motion to amend the board's strategic plan for next year to include development of the water quality rules.
"We haven't said anything yet about what the rules will contain, but we've said we're going to move forward with developing hazardous materials rules and impervious cover rules," said Rice, an environmentalist who has been pushing for the rules for several years.
Impervious cover refers to roofs, sidewalks, streets and driveways -- any material that prevents water from filtering into the ground and being added to the aquifer.
"That's a big step, and it's a step we have to take before we can do anything else," he said of drafting the rules. "The staff will come up with a concept paper laying out their general thoughts on how we ought to proceed."
Rice would not predict how tough the proposed rules might be or how the board might vote.
A motion to draft rules regarding the storage, use and transportation of hazardous materials on the recharge zone passed without opposition, but another on impervious cover drew significant debate before it was approved 11-3.
"The impervious cover question somehow brings out the challenge to our water quality authority," said Carol Patterson, a Bexar County director who opposed drafting those rules.
She said she fears land use controls might anger some legislators.
State Sen. Kenneth Armbrister, D-Victoria, two years ago tried to strip all power from the authority to address water quality issues, saying that when he co-authored a bill that created the authority, he intended to leave that issue for the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, now called the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
But in annual hearings held by that state agency, it has been criticized by local residents and agencies for doing too little.
Luana Buckner, a Medina County representative, also opposed drafting impervious cover rules, saying they'd have more impact on her developing county than on Bexar, where she said most of the recharge zone already is developed or has grandfathered rights.
In other action, the board sent out for public comment a $17.9 million proposed budget for 2006. That includes $10.4 million in operating expenses -- a $2.4 million reduction from this year's budget.
The budget also proposes a management fee of $37 per acre-foot of water for municipal and industrial pumpers, down from $38 this year. The fee for irrigation farmers would remain at $2.
The budget also includes a $5.9 million transfer of funds left over from this year's budget to a new conservation fund to begin giving rebates to municipal and industrial permit holders who do not use all their allocated water rights.
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