When I bought property in Driftwood, TX, I knew that I would need to relearn a few things about living in the country. I had been a “city girl” for many years but my roots are in small towns of far east Texas. Living in Austin, I was very aware of water.. water that I drank as well as the recreational waters that surround the hill country. We’ve all experienced the TV daily monitoring of Lake Travis reflecting the effects of our severe droughts, but now I would have to understand the “mystery of groundwater”. In fact, in the early 1900’s it was declared such a mystery that the legislature passed a “rule of capture” law. That is, if you can figure out how to capture this mysterious asset then it’s yours.
Today we are so much more knowledgeable about what this mystery is. In fact we have spent years studying the aquifers which flow throughout the state and are fully aware that this water serves millions from a shared resource. Such a sacred resource that we now have in place several organizations to monitor and try to manage the aquifers and attempt to project groundwater availability for the generations of the future. The Trinity Aquifer is a large area situated under multiple counties and unfortunately some of the Trinity Aquifer protection is sorely inadequate and unfunded to provide sustainable management for the current residents of portions of Hays County. Where I live in the Rolling Oaks neighborhood of Driftwood, oversight, regulation and management do not exist at all and this “no man’s land” is exactly where large commercial wells are being drilled.
Here is what I know.
