This map shows where in Hays County the monitoring wells will be located.[/caption]

The Hays County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved spending $100,000 to install four wells for collection of Western Hays County groundwater data.

The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District will drill, evaluate and monitor the four wells to record and analyze water levels and water quality in selected Trinity subaquifers. Right now, the district monitors 49 wells in Western Hays County.

Commissioner Will Conley said this data will help spur policies in the future at the groundwater district level.

"This is part of our ongoing efforts to do our best in partnering with other jurisdictions—predominantly groundwater districts—to help provide and to accelerate the infrastructure that is needed to best monitor on, if not the most important natural resource throughout Hays County," he said.

The entire cost of the wells and installation is $180,000. The conservation district will contribute $80,000, with $30,000 coming from a Dripping Springs Water Supply Corp. donation.

Drilling to install the wells will begin this month, with the last of the four well installations happening by May, according to the conservation district.

The wells will track information such as water levels and precipitation data. Anyone can view the monitoring data here.

Last year, the Hays County Commissioners approved a similar funding agreement with the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District for a monitoring well in the Trinity Aquifer near Driftwood.

"When you're better informed, you're going to make better decisions [and] you're going to create better policies," Conley said. "We want that to be based off reality and science."