The details
During the meeting, the Bastrop County Commissioners Court approved a resolution supporting joint permitting authority between the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for all aquifer storage and recovery projects, and voted against an ASR collaboration agreement with Austin Water.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Clara Beckett drafted the document, which will be presented to the Texas Legislature, with the help of Elvis Hernandez, who is the general manager of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.
“[Hernandez] would like to see the groundwater districts have some kind of permitting authority as it relates to these projects,” Beckett said. “The legislature charged groundwater districts and charged them with a number of things—one being protection of the aquifers.”
However, when the Texas Legislature codified ASR, the permitting authority was placed in the hands of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“It doesn't make any sense to have an agency responsible for protection of an aquifer, and another agency that's permitting pumping into that aquifer,” Beckett said. “There should be peer review at least.”
Austin Water Director Shay Roalson told commissioners that she and her coworkers have long recognized that collaboration with the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District is essential for the ASR project to be successful.
“Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District has a wealth of knowledge,” she said.
What we know
Roalson emphasized that they are not asking anyone to support their project at this time.
“In fact, we don't even have enough information to recommend that the project should be built,” she said. “We're just asking to work together in partnership to do three years of testing to gather additional information. At the end of the testing, everyone will have the same data about water quality, and we will all learn more about the aquifer.”
What residents are saying
Bastrop Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland was among the handful of residents who signed up to speak during the public hearing portion of the Oct. 27 meeting.
“I'm speaking in my official capacity as the acting mayor pro tem of the city of Bastrop, representing approximately 13,000 residents,” he said. “This court and the city Bastrop share the same opinion—that this project should not come to Bastrop.”
He urged the Bastrop County Commissioners Court not to approve an ASR collaboration agreement with Austin Water.
“The purpose of this agreement is to ensure inclusion of the local stakeholders in the initial testing phases to be able to monitor the testing data and have a say in the decision regarding whether the data shows the project should go forward or not, and the process for said involvement,” Bryan McDaniel, general counsel for Bastrop County, said.
Although several county and city officials have emphasized that signing an ASR collaboration agreement would give them “a seat at the table” with Austin officials, Kirkland challenged that notion.
“This table is an illusion,” he said. “If this court signs the agreement, it will be used to suggest that the county approves of the project. Your signature will be taken as tacit approval.”
Bastrop County Commissioners Court voted against the ASR collaboration agreement, with Precinct 4 Commissioner David Glass abstaining.
Glass opted not to vote, as he is the president of the Aqua Water Supply Corporation’s board of directors—a utility company that has already signed an ASR collaboration agreement with Austin Water.
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—in late 2025 to explore the feasibility of storing drinking water underground in Bastrop County’s portion of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
“We believe this is about a three-year, 36 to 42 months, [phase],” Roalson said.
The outlook
If the project proceeds to field testing, the following steps would include:
- Piloting
- Full-scale implementation
