Edwards Aquifer Historic Use
Filings Deadline December 30

By Colleen Schreiber

JUNCTION — The Edwards Aquifer Authority, which now regulates the underground water districts in Bexar, Medina and Uvalde counties, has ruled that persons using at least 25,000 gallons of water a day from the Edwards Aquifer must file a "historic use" designation by December 30. Wells using less than the 25,000 gallons a day must also be registered with the authority.

Total pumping from the Edwards Aquifer will be limited to 450,000 gallons per year to comply with a court order, which contends that the arbitrary limit is necessary to keep springs flowing year-round and protect officially "endangered" species dependent upon the springs.

A $25 fee will be assessed on every permit filed with the authority, and every well over the aquifer must be equipped with a meter. In the future, anyone using water from the aquifer will be charged a pumping fee.

This announcement has already caused considerable consternation among landowners. Mostly, it’s the unknown they’re afraid of, and limitations on their historic and legal property rights they resent.

Speaking at the recent Texas and Sheep Goat Raisers Association meeting here, Austin-based attorney Ed Small encouraged anyone who owns any land over the Edwards Aquifer to file a historic use designation by the appropriate deadline even if they don’t use more than 25,000 gallons of water a day. He suggested that it would be better to file and get on the books than not to file at all; once all historic use permits are filed, Small predicted, the total output doubtless will far exceed the 450,000 gallon limit, and those who have no record of historical use will have lost out.

No one knows yet how the authority will decide who gets water and how much.

"You can see there’s probably a whole lot of lawsuits coming," Small said. "No doubt this Edwards Aquifer legislation will severely restrict private property rights."

Some 800,000 acre feet of water a year is currently being pumped out of the Edwards. Under the new regulations, irrigators are supposedly entitled to two acre feet per year for every acre they’ve watered starting in 1972. That will account for approximately 200,000 acre feet of the 450,000 available. The city of San Antonio uses an additional 200,000 acre feet a year, and the region’s industrial complex takes another 100,000. Thus the three major users already account for at least 500,000 acre feet of water.

"Something obviously has to give," Small noted.

He said that the ruling appears to indicate that pumpers who have used water for three consecutive years appear to have an advantage over those who haven’t.

Small briefly discussed the state water plan put together by Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock’s staff.

The plan calls for "conjunctive management" and the establishment of a "correlative rights" system to enhance the marketing of water.

"Conjunctive management," Small told listeners, "is the buzz word which says they’re going to take over all water regulations, both groundwater and surface water, in Texas."

A correlative rights system in general means that everyone would then have a stake in a given aquifer. Water under the surface is assigned to the surface, but must be used beneficially and without hurting the rights of other water owners.

There are four basic parts to the water plan: drouth response, water management, surface and ground water, and financial.

Small noted that not all recommendations in the plan are good for the private landowner. He pinpointed some of the specifics, such as a $10,000 fine for anyone who violates surface water rights. Other language allows "emergency" suspension and reassignment of water permits without notice or a hearing; the rights could be reassigned, for example, to a municipality that needs the water. Compensation, the plan says, is to be decided at a later date.

The plan discusses the need for funding to put more emphasis on water management, marketing and transfer. It also refers to water reuse and water marketing.

Water marketing, Small noted, will be a big business in the future.

"San Antonio, I’m sure, will be short of water. Where are they going to get the water rights? They’re going to go to the farmers who have the irrigation rights," Small said.

Under this plan farmers can sell up to 50 percent of their water rights, Small said, and some predict that those rights might be worth as much as $100 an acre.

There is concern that farmers will find it more profitable to sell their water than to use it for irrigation to grow crops. Small sees the possibility that so many might opt to sell that rural areas would dry up and blow away.

Water reuse will be another major issue, Small predicted. He noted that municipal water can be reused but irrigation water can’t.

"We will see a lot of pressure on water for first use for irrigation," Small said. "Fifty percent of the water in Texas comes out of the ground through an irrigation pump, and environmentalists are going to see to it that that stops."

Interbasin transfer — transferring water from one river to another — is and will be another big issue, Small said. Some 80 interbasin transfer permits are already on the books, and several court battles are already in the works.

All of these issues, Small told the crowd, will be put on the table during the next legislative session.