The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District hosted a town hall meeting last week to discuss impacts of and responses to the ongoing Hill Country drought. But despite addressing a number of concerns, there was little resolution.
The meeting took place at Vista Brewing in Driftwood on Wednesday, Sept. 7. Residents from Dripping Springs, Driftwood, Wimberley, Woodcreek and the surrounding areas were in attendance, along with a panel of local government officials, water company representatives and others.
The meeting began with a presentation from Gary, who explained that, despite recent rainfall, the Hill Country is still in a drought.
“The rain we’ve had recently has helped — we received four inches of rain in August alone — but we’re still far behind where we should be at this point in the year,” she said. “The total rainfall for 2022 in this area is around 11 to 12 inches. We should be at 22 inches or more.”
Although different areas of Hays County, as well as the Hill Country, have different drought triggers (factors that determine whether or not a certain area is in drought), everyone is currently in drought, Gary said.
“We’re a groundwater- dependent group of people, and the areas that provide recharge [to our depleted groundwater] out west are still all in exceptional drought,” Gary said. “That influences how much recharge we can get into our aquifers.”
Because of the low amount of recharge, groundwater conservation districts in the Hill Country had to go under curtailment throughout the summer, resulting in restrictions on water usage for property owners across the region. Most districts remain under curtailment, though the severity for each differs.
“The reductions aren’t meant to be punitive,” Gary explained. “We just need to sustain the water supply as much as possible. Drought doesn’t just happen in Jacob’s Well or Cypress Creek; it affects all of us.”
The closing of popular swimming hole Jacob’s Well, which ceased flowing this summer for the fifth time in recorded history, cost Hays County approximately $150,000 in lost revenue, Gary said. Meanwhile, the early closing of Blue Hole for the summer cost the county somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000 in lost revenue.
Issues that arise as a result of drought are not likely to go away anytime soon, Wimberley Water Supply Corp’s Garrett Allen added.
“If you look back 20 years, you can see that well levels have gotten lower and lower,” he explained. “One year, you might go into a Stage 1 or Stage 2 drought, and then, it starts raining, and you come back out of it. But the water level never goes back up to what it was. And so when you see that continue to happen, year after year, you’re never going back to where you were; the overall levels just keep decreasing.”
Allen said he believes that voluntary water conservation stages should be a thing of the past. Common sense (unnecessary water use) should be encouraged year-round, not just in times of drought, he explains.
But in an area of increasing growth and development, cities often find themselves tied to high levels of water usage with new businesses, homes and other developments. Dripping Springs Mayor Bill Foulds, Jr. explained that, in the case of the Driftwood Golf and Ranch Club, the city is contractually obligated to provide a certain amount of water.
Dripping Springs began its contract with the golf club in August 2019 for up to 1 million gallons a day for 10 years or until the city of Dripping Springs can provide the course with 100% of treated effluent, whichever is sooner, Mayor Foulds explained. Since first drawing water in July 2020, the facility has used 190 million gallons of water over the past two years, according to the West Travis County Public Utility Association.
“There is a solution, closer than you may think,” said James Grizzard of Harvest Rain. Grizzard suggests that turn-key rainwater systems, like the ones his company installs and services, can be the solution for irrigation, potable, and fire protection water needs.
Unfortunately, he said, red tape at the state level has made this more difficult for some businesses to use. The future, he said, is not only water education, but change in laws and support at the state level.
