Hays County looks to solve water problem

Hays County officials have said the contract is meant to ensure the county's water supply is able to keep pace with anticipated growth. Hays County's population is currently about 170,000, and that number is expected to increase to more than 593,000 by 2060, according to the TWDB's estimates.

With population growth comes increased demand for water, Cobb said.

"Others want to come to this area for the same reason that drew you and me to this area. More people moving to Central Texas means that you will now have less water," Cobb said.

According to the TWDB's 2016 Regional Water Plan, Hays County will need 93,141 acre-feet of water per year by 2060, an increase of about 63,000 acre-feet from the 2013 demand.

Hays County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ray Whisenant said the agreement with Forestar will give Hays County access to one of the largest supplies of water in the state.

"Right now the reservation is there to make sure [Forestar] can [provide] the water, not only in quantity, but in quality," Whisenant said. "There is a large, large volume of water underground there. I think probably as significant a volume as there is in the state of Texas."

Under terms of the agreement, Forestar will give Hays County a reservation of up to 45,000 acre-feet of water per year at a rate of $22.22 per acre-foot, or about $1 million per year, for the first five years of the agreement. After the initial five-year term, the rate will increase to $75 per acre-foot, or about $3.38 million annually.

Exactly how that water will make the trip to Hays County remains to be seen. Whisenant estimated that it would be at least "five years plus" before the county had a pipeline in place to transport the water from Bastrop and Lee counties.

Preliminary estimates show that the water could be transported to Hays County at rates that would be competitive with other water providers in the area, Whisenant said. Residents of Dripping Springs who receive water from the city currently pay about $54 for 5,000 gallons of water per month.

"There appears to be an ability at the pricing we're working with in our contract that would see water come to some point in Hays County at a cost that is almost the same as, for example, the water from Lake Travis that gets to the city of Dripping Springs, through the west Travis County system," Whisenant said. "They are well-within marketable ranges of cost."

Lawsuit

Forestar appealed the conservation district's decision to only approve 12,000 of the 45,000 acre-feet requested in its application, but the district chose not to take action on the appeal, so it failed.

According to a TWDB survey from August, about 25 percent of the water in the Simsboro is recoverable.

"There being over 11 million acre-feet of exportable water means that the 45,000 acre-feet reserved by Hays is but a small percentage of the available water in Lee and Bastrop counties," Cobb said.

Conservationists in the two counties have said the amount of water in the aquifer that is rechargeable is closer to about 30,000 acre-feet, and the 11 million cited by Cobb from the TWDB study is an overstatement.

Ed McCarthy, a representative of Forestar from the law firm Jackson, Sjoberg, McCarthy & Wilson, LLP, presented an alternative plan to the district Nov. 4, hoping to appease critics of the original plan.

"When we heard concerns that our project was too big, was going to pump too much water too quickly and could put too great a demand on the aquifer, we had proposed and discussed with staff the opportunities to phase in our project over time," McCarthy said.

Under the new plan, Forestar would phase in its plan to pump 45,000 acre-feet annually over the course of 25 years.

At the Nov. 4 meeting, the conservation district's board of directors granted a rehearing tentatively scheduled for December.

Cobb said the agreement with Forestar is one part of a water strategy that includes conservationism and planning to provide adequate water for the region.

"It has become increasingly clear that, in the near future, any available water will be sold to Travis or Bexar County or to private water purveyors who will control our water," Cobb said. "We either reserve water in the name of Hays County now, or in the future we will be forced to buy our water from private companies at whatever price they demand."