An organization dedicated to preserving groundwater resources in Hays County has filed suit against the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) over a permit given to a private company allowing it to pump 289 million gallons of water annually from the Trinity Aquifer.
The Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association (TESPA) argues that a permit BSEACD issued to Needmore Water LLC in July 2019 should not have been granted. The permit was converted from a temporary permit issued in October 2015 that TESPA says was illegal because the well referenced was not in production at that time, meaning it could not be grandfathered in on new regulations that came in with HB 3405, which was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2015.
Events building up to the current situation, however, were set in motion even before that. In 2011, a popular area of the Blanco River was closed to the public after the acreage was sold by Houston attorney John O’Quinn to the Mantia family of south Texas, whose eventual goal was to create a Municipal Utility District (MUD) which would pave the way for a subdivision.
