Public Hearing: LCRA Groundwater Permit Application

PUBLIC HEARING

LCRA’s Groundwater Permit Application

January 28, 2021 at 6-9 PM Hybrid Meeting

Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District’s Board of Directors will hold a Public Hearing on January 28th from 6-9 pm. The meeting will be held at the Bastrop Convention & Exhibit Center with a virtual connection for public participation. For the District’s agenda and instructions for participating in the meeting see the PUBLIC NOTICE: click here for a Word.doc with working links on how to participate and here for PDF.

LCRA is requesting permission to pump 25,000 acre feet of groundwater per year from the Simsboro Aquifer. The permit application is opposed by Environmental Stewardship and several other protestants.

We are strongly encouraging public comment via Zoom or telephone. See instructions below.

READ THE NOTICE CAREFULLY ABOUT HOW TO PARTICIPATE AND PLEASE NOTE YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP BY WEDNESDAY TO SPEAK AT THE HEARING –— Contact the District at 512-360-5088 or email to lpgcd@lostpineswater.org to register as a speaker during public comment or on any agenda item by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, January 27th. Please indicate whether you would like to speak during public comment and/or a specific item on the agenda. Any person participating in the meeting must be recognized and identified by the presiding officer before they speak.

On January 28, get on ZOOM or the telephone line starting at 5:45 p.m. for the 6 p.m. hearing.

PUBLIC COMMENT, limited to 3 minutes, will be taken near the top of the hearing.

We encourage your participation in the hearing, even if you aren’t going to speak — It’s human nature: If you know your neighbors are watching, you are more inclined to take to heart anything you do that affects them. This is your last opportunity to talk to the board members before they deliberate on LCRA, and you may NOT speak to any board member about LCRA after this hearing.

Without you watching and listening to what they are doing that affects the Colorado River, its tributaries, your groundwater and your private property rights in groundwater, Lost Pines board members may not be as accountable or transparent when they take official action on LCRA’s request to permanently remove 25,000 AFY of our local groundwater and export it out of the district. They are allowed to use it in Bastrop and Lee counties but they don’t have to.

Connection Instructions

Zoom Meeting Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3690090040?pwd=cDNJcTlWdGRRcnc0UlplM0VRQlJHZz09

Meeting ID: 369 009 0040

Passcode: a0ix0g

Telephone conference:

Phone number: Dial +1 346 248 7799

Meeting ID: 369 009 0040 #

Passcode: 058330

NOTE: IN PERSON ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED TO: THE LOST PINES BOARD MEMBERS AND SPECIAL COUNSEL, TWO REPRESENTATIVES FROM EACH PARTY TO THE CONTESTED CASE PROCEEDING INCLUDING THEIR COUNSEL, DISTRICT STAFF, A COURT REPORTER, AND ON-SITE OPERATIONS PERSONNEL. DUE TO HEALTH AND SAFETY MEASURES, ALL OTHERS AND THE PUBLIC MUST PARTICIPATE REMOTELY. ALL IN PERSON PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ASKED TO WEAR A FACE COVERING AT ALL TIMES.

Public Participation and Talking Points

The general public (including excluded landowners) can only attend by teleconference or phone. By law, there will be an opportunity for the general public to make comments, usually near the top of the meeting agenda. However, also by law, these comments will not be part of the hearing record and the Board is told they may not consider public comments when making a decision regarding the LCRA Permit application.

So it’s your choice — you can follow our talking points (see below) that don’t directly address the LCRA permit, or you can speak to them about anything you want to, with one caveat: The District and its Board have to have the power — the jurisdiction and the authority — over the subject matter of what you want to talk to them about.

That means, FOR EXAMPLE, they have authority over how much water is pumped in the District, and they can address unreasonable impacts of that pumping on aquifers and surface water, but they don’t have authority, for example, for effects of pumping on endangered species habitat, or other “flora and fauna” issues directly. They don’t have authority over pumping in other districts, but they are able to engage with those districts to figure out things that are going wrong in the region and with our aquifers that don’t observe political boundaries.

Environmental Stewardship, as a party to the proceedings, will be present and will address the Board regarding its concerns. For more about our concerns please click the following two link:

Our friends at the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund (SAWDF) supports the efforts of the Brown Landowners; a group of 30 landowners who were admitted as one collective party to the contested case hearing. For more about their concerns please click on the following link:

Brown Landowers Concerns

Talking Point

The Colorado River and its tributaries are facing serious threats to the amount of water that flows through Bastrop County and to the Brazos River and its tributaries in Lee County.

The amount of pumping already permitted in Lost Pines District is predicted to have unreasonable impact on our rivers and streams.
Streams that GAIN water from the aquifers will reverse and become streams that LOSE water to the aquifers within a few decades.
This reversal will have devastating impacts during dry periods and during drought conditions.
Many of our streams already go dry during normal dry periods, and many more will go dry during extreme droughts like we had in 2011-13.

Monitoring of the impact of groundwater pumping on stream flow is an essential element of our ability to measure and manage the problems mentioned above.

Monitoring of surface waters-groundwater interaction is needed to protect our rivers and streams.
Such monitoring will also help protect domestic wells by putting boundaries on the amount of pumping that is acceptable without damaging our environment and our well water supplies.
It is important that such monitoring be included in groundwater permits and be an enforceable condition of the permit. That means that if it is not done, and not done right, the permit can be cancelled.
It is important in permits where there are phased-in increases in water withdrawn that environmental advocates such as Environmental Stewardship, Landowners and the Public have a voice in whether or not requests to increase the volume of water that can be pumped are granted or denied based on the best science available at the time — science that comes from surface water monitoring.

Northeast Lee County wells, along with Burleson County wells, that are drilled into the Carrizo Aquifer, are experiencing significant impacts that are believed to be coming from the Vista Ridge/SAWS groundwater project in Burleson County

Vista Ridge is under the authority of the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District, but this is a serious encroachment on Lee County landowners, the Lost Pines GCD, the Colorado River and its tributaries.
The same hydrological conditions that cause the damage to domestic wells also causes impacts on surface waters — our canaries on the land.
Vista Ridge is pumping 15,000 acre-feet/year(AFY)from the Carrizo, and up to 40, 835 AFY from the Simsboro. :

The general public can make comments that set the mood or tone in which the Board makes their decision. Here are some general topics to consider:

conservation of groundwater,
groundwater rights,
monitoring of surface water (Colorado River and its tributaries) for impacts from groundwater pumping,
protection of surface water from impacts of groundwater pumping,
LPGCD’s duty to “protect the water supply of Lee and Bastrop county residents,”
The investment landowners have in their water rights/property rights;
Or other topics that do NOT mention the LCRA will be hard to ignore.