Some context
The ASR project, approved as part of Austin’s Water Forward Plan, aims to store and draw water at the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer through a facility Austin officials plan to build in northeast Bastrop County, as previously reported by Community Impact.
“We have committed to putting in more than we take out,” said Emlea Chanslor, who works in the public information office at Austin Water, during a Bastrop City Council meeting July 8. “At least a 5% deposit will not be withdrawn, and that will help create a buffer zone and protect the health of the aquifer.”
However, Austin Water officials plan to first launch a three-year scientific study—which will test water compatibility in a lab and not in the ground—in late 2025 to explore the feasibility of storing drinking water underground in the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
“This is going to tell us a lot about the aquifer,” said Andy Wier, who works with the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund, said. “I want to see Austin Water's policies on what they think is a reasonable risk of injecting water into the aquifer. I want to see what science says.”
Voicing concerns
Austin Water offered Bastrop County residents, like Wier, a space in the Bastrop County Community Center during the open house.
“We have a table here for local community members who want to be able to talk to folks who are attending, and provide them [with] their own information,” Chanslor told Community Impact on Sept. 3.
Mark and Shari Wyatt, a married couple from Paige, were among those in attendance at the come-and-go event Sept. 3, and listed several concerns about the project, including:
- The possibility of unregulated contaminants injected underground
- Landowners being affected economically
- The commingling of aquifer waters
- A failure to open ASR Technical Advisory Group meetings to the public
- Aquifer contamination due to clogging of wells
- A lack of an environmental impact statement from Austin Water
Yet the concern they placed the most emphasis on was, “Why Bastrop County?”
“The primary beneficiaries are located in Travis County, while those negatively impacted are in Bastrop County,” the Wyatts said. “Austin Water should develop ASR projects in the county of the primary beneficiaries.”
Moving forward
Four additional open houses will follow, including those from:
- 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Paige Community Center, 117 Main St., Paige
- 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Bastrop County Annex Community Room, 702 Bull Run Road, Elgin
- 10 a.m.-noon Sept. 13 at the Paige Community Center, 117 Main St., Paige
- 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Smithville Recreation Center, 106 Royston St., Smithville
“We've been meeting with some stakeholders here in Bastrop County since April, talking about the project—what protections and benefits would they like to see in the project, and now we're here to talk with the community in general, and we're really happy to do so,” Chanslor said.
Wier emphasized his pleasure that the public is finally being engaged.
“They haven’t talked to landowners for fear of creating a panic, and I’ve said, ‘No, you created a panic by not talking,’” he said.
So far, the dialogue, Chanslor noted, is good. It was a sentiment Brandon Niese, an engineer on the Water Resources Team with Austin Water, shared.
“Most of the people I've interacted with today may have come from a place of uncertainty, but I feel like we, as we're talking with them, are maybe not coming completely around, but they're more understanding of what's happening,” he said.
Also of note
A finalized memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be brought to Bastrop City Council for consideration and action in October, according to Bastrop officials.
