SAWDF Update • 4/13/2023
Favorable Bills making progress
House Natural Resources Committee [HNRC]
SB 1080 – Kolkhorst
Relating to a mitigation program and fees for the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.
Senator Kolkhorst’s bill allowing LPGCD to mitigate failing wells is scheduled for a public hearing in the HNRC on Tuesday, April 18, 8 AM, E2.010. It is a very full agenda. Representative Stan Gerdes will present the bill, but we don’t know whether that will be in the morning between 8-10 AM or later when HNRC reconvenes after House business is done. SAWDF urges you to attend, but you should be ready for a long day. In the meantime, you can visit legislator offices regarding other bills important to you. We’ll have our signature water droplet buttons and look forward to seeing you there! Call/text Andy if you want to carpool with him. [512-545-4779]
· Verbal testimony is limited to 2 minutes. We strongly urge you to practice and time your comments, so you are not cut-off mid-sentence.
· Texas residents who wish to electronically submit comments related to agenda items on this notice without testifying in person can do so until the hearing adjourns. Comments submitted electronically are limited to 3,000 characters [about one typed page].
· On the day of the hearing, a live video broadcast of this House hearing will be available.
Texas House of Representatives
HB 5052 – Gerdes
Representative Gerdes’ bill was passed out of HNRC, favorably, without amendments and a committee report sent to the House Committee on Calendars. When it receives 4/9 votes in the Calendars Committee, it will be placed on the House Calendar. Slowly but surely!
Other favorable bills were passed out of HNRC:
HB 3059 – King – Placed on House General Calendar for 4/17/2023
More dates for your calendar
Lost Pines GCD Rules Workshop
A Rules Workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 19, 6-7 p.m. at the Bastrop Convention Center, 1408 B Chestnut Street, Bastrop 78602. The workshop will be facilitated by LPGCD technical and legal consultants. This workshop is critical! Please look at the proposed rules, especially Section 9 regarding Production Limits and Management Zones. Section 9 introduces production limits that we commonly refer to as “correlative rights.” The table in Section 9 lists the amount of groundwater from each formation that LPGCD will approve for production from each surface acre of land. Read the proposed rules (scroll down past the agenda), ask questions, and prepare your questions for April 19!
After the workshop, the board wants to receive written comments by May 3rd.
Lost Pines GCD Regular Board Meeting
LCRA Permit for Griffith League Ranch
Reminder to the Brown Landowners and others interested in the ongoing LCRA permit:
April 26, 804 Pecan Street Bastrop, TX 78602
Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett’s Courtroom, time 2 pm (starting time for docket ---we think we are only hearing on her calendar but won’t know for sure til that Monday – we will update you if necessary)
Judge Corbett will consider two matters related to the lawsuit (“appeal”) by LCRA filed against Lost Pines. The other parties who contested LCRA’s permit, including the Brown Landowners, are seeking to intervene in that lawsuit in order to have some involvement in the proceeding, but they all also want LCRA’s appeal to be dismissed entirely. We don’t know in what order the judge will consider the following:
a “plea to the jurisdiction” motion brought against LCRA, which basically asks the Judge to rule she doesn’t have jurisdiction because of procedural failures by LCRA; and
a motion asking the Judge to reconsider her earlier, surprise ruling in March striking intervention by other parties to the contested case.
We hope you will plan to be in our local district judge’s courtroom that day. (J. Corbett presides over Bastrop, Lee, Burleson, and Washington counties in her 335th District Court.)
Post Oak Savannah GCD – A little Easter Joy!
Encouraging developments at POSGCD on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. The POSGCD board approved a temporary amendment to the Vista Ridge permit. Vista Ridge proposes to increase production in the Simsboro formation so that they can reduce production in the Carrizo formation by the same amount. The amendment is for a 3-month period, during which Vista Ridge and POSGCD will monitor water levels in the aquifer. “Shifting a portion of the current production to the Simsboro is expected to benefit local groundwater users by reducing artesian pressure declines in the Carrizo aquifer, which is used to a much greater extent by local landowners.”
This is a direct result of your advocacy at LPGCD, POSGCD, San Antonio Water System [SAWS], and with your county and state representatives! Thank you!
LIV published a quote and I was puzzled as to where it came from. After skimming through an email from Dr. Chubb I realized that this statement was part of an April 14 letter from Vista Ridge LLC to the Post Oak Groundwater Conservation District which can be viewed in its entirety at
https://posgcd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vista-Ridge-Temporary-Amendment-Combined.pdf
“Shifting a portion of the current production to the Simsboro is expected to benefit local groundwater users by reducing artesian pressure declines in the Carrizo aquifer, which is used to a much greater extent by local landowners.”
The letter included the address of Vista Ridge LLC in San Antonio, Texas and includes a phone number with a 512 area code, which is not a San Antoni…