North Concho Brush Control
Study Predicts Water Savings

SAN ANGELO – Situated as it is at the juncture of several geographical regions, the Concho River country around here has seen literally centuries of white exploration, travel and settlement. That has given it a written history rife with first-hand accounts of how the land looked over the years, and until the last few decades, it looked much different than it does today.

Explorers, travelers and early settlers all described the Concho Valley as an area with little timber and abundant water. Today it is heavily timbered — with brush — and it would be poorly watered if not for a number of reservoirs that trap mostly storm-flow runoff.

The open grasslands, flowing streams, abundant fish and wealth of game once led Spanish explorers to describe it as "the richest region in all New Spain," lacking only sufficient firewood to make it a paradise on earth. Those old Spaniards wouldn’t lack for firewood today, and it has long been common wisdom that the brush which has changed that aspect of the country is responsible in large measure for robbing it of its former riches.

A group of interested landowners gathered here recently to hear researchers confirm with numbers what they’ve suspected all along: get rid of the brush and the water will return.

The occasion was the unveiling of the "North Concho River Brush Control Planning, Assessment and Feasibility Study." It was also the first shot in a battle for state funds that could move the project from a feasibility study to an actual demonstration.

Long-range, backers hope that a successful brush control/water enhancement project on the North Concho watershed could lead to similar programs elsewhere in the state and the subsequent recovery of millions of acre-feet of water currently wasted by noxious plants.

A law allowing the state to do just that has been on the books since 1985, when Sen. Bill Sims of San Angelo shepherded a brush control bill through the legislature. The hitch has been that there never was any funding.

The North Concho project represents the most comprehensive effort so far to remedy that problem.

In a brief synopsis, the report concludes that successful brush control on the watershed can increase stream flow in the North Concho River five times over the current amount, underground aquifers can be recharged, and water for the people of Texas made available at a cost to the state of a fraction of what a West Texas city or individual pays for water today.

The report recommends that a total of 432,485 acres or 45 percent of the watershed be considered for some form of brush control program.

The North Concho River watershed encompasses more than 950,000 acres located in West Central Texas within Tom Green, Sterling, Glasscock and Coke counties. Average annual rainfall varies from approximately 16 inches in Glasscock County to 19 inches in Tom Green County.

Currently, a large share of that relatively meager rainfall goes to support an estimated 130 million mesquites and another 100 million junipers. Experts estimate that these two brush species alone rob the watershed of almost two million acre feet of water annually. Together, the mesquite and cedar use 100 times more water than the city of San Angelo.

The brush is thought to be responsible for the drying up of many of the springs in the area that once ran year-round. That has led to a drastic reduction in annual stream flow in the river and subsequently into the only reservoir on the watershed, O.C. Fisher Reservoir. O.C. Fisher was constructed in the early 1950s immediately above San Angelo for flood protection and as San Angelo’s primary water supply.

Landowners in the watershed have experienced water shortages, and degradation of underground aquifers has caused irrigation practices to be limited. It has also resulted in deteriorated water quality and destroyed aquatic habitat.

Landowners along Rocky Creek years ago proved that brush control can revive streams, but their practical demonstration lacked the kind of scientific data that sways legislators and policymakers. Thus the need for the North Concho River Watershed Brush Control Study.

The feasibility project is the result of a year-long cooperative study of the North Concho watershed, detailing its history, hydrology, geology, land use, and past and present characteristics. The study was accomplished through a partnership composed of the Upper Colorado River Authority, Texas A&M University Research and Extension Center and the Texas State Soil & Water Conservation Board through a grant obtained through the Texas Water Development Board. Other participants include the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Blackland Research Center, and soil and water conservation districts from Tom Green, Coke, Sterling and Glasscock counties.

Based on various analyses, experts conclude that $12 million in state funding is required for state cost share of brush control on all of the qualifying acreage in the watershed. Of this total, backers hope to see $6 million appropriated in the 2000-2001 biennium and the remaining $6 million over the following three biennia.

The study calculates the cost of the added water at $53 per acre foot for the 10-year contract period used in the economic analysis. If follow-up brush treatments are conducted, the cost would fall to half that much.

Prying money out of the legislature is never an easy task, particularly when the benefits can be portrayed as falling even partly to private interests, such as the landowners who would gain from a brush control project. The study, however, calculates the economic advantage of brush control to those landowners and establishes that figure as the cost-share portion to be borne by them.

It is only the remainder that the program’s supporters are seeking from the state, and this may be their best shot at getting it. Coming on the heels — or, God forbid, in the middle — of one of the most severe drouths in history, next year’s legislative session should find lawmakers more receptive than usual to water enhancement issues. At the same time, they will also face the prospect of a rare budget surplus.

A budget surplus can be expected to generate a concurrent surplus of projects seeking funding, of course, but the North Concho brush program has an ace in the hole — one of its backers is State Rep. Rob Junell, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.