WIMBERLEY — As water has been a hot button item in some communities, Hays County and the cities of Wimberley and Woodcreek will soon begin planning efforts to come up with a solution.
At its May 20 meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved an interlocal agreement between the county and the two cities in order to implement a collaborative water and wastewater planning effort. According to the agreement, the parties have a history of working together on important issues and currently participate together in the management of the Blanco Cypress Creek Watershed Protection Plan, which has become a “successful example of collaboration.”
This agreement allows for all of the stakeholders to come to the table and talk about the water issues that both leadership and community members are seeing in the area, said Hays County Commissioner Precinct 3 Morgan Hammer.
“There’s a water problem, but have we ever truly said, ‘We're going to partner together as the county and as the municipalities and we're going to solve this issue and figure out how to solve it,’” Hammer explained. “Where can we pull money from to be able to look into [aquifer storage and recovery] research, the lower Trinity? What other things can we do? Can we start doing One Water across the board? So, things of that nature because I think that you have so many of these areas that want to do better, but we really just haven't partnered together … All of these places coming together will be, in my opinion, extremely beneficial.”
There are multiple factors that are causing the water issue that communities in Hays County are facing, Hammer said.
“Aqua [Texas] is just not being held accountable for their over pumping. And you know, the J-15 measure of Jacob's Well shows them that, ‘Hey, there's no water. You need to fix your lines. You need to stop over pumping. You need to just be good actors within this whole issue that we have’ and they haven't stepped up to the plate to show us that and they've really kind of done the opposite of working together,” she explained. “We're not getting as much rain as we used to … From a public water standpoint, like these distilleries and these breweries, they can't use rainwater. They have to treat it as surface water and test it on a daily basis when it's like one of the purest forms of water. So,that's something from the legislature we need to change. There's a lot of things that we need to do and rally together to make sure that they get done and those are all just ways that we can tap into solving the bigger issue.”
The water supply in the Wimberley Valley has been at the top of the minds for all elected officials and stakeholders, said Woodcreek Mayor Jeff Rasco, that work to preserve and protect the valuable resource.
“The interlocal agreement between Hays County and the cities of Woodcreek and Wimberley under the leadership of Precinct 3 Commissioner Morgan Hammer promises to put some teeth into the efforts to protect our aquifer and keep our springs, creeks and river flowing,” Rasco said.
On May 27, Rasco signed the agreement, as approved by the Woodcreek City Council.
At its June 5 meeting, Wimberley City Council unanimously approved the item, which garnered the final signature needed from Wimberley Mayor Jim Chiles.
"We welcome the opportunity to join forces with Woodcreek and the county to work on strategies that will preserve our water supply for our residents, our environment and our local economy,” said Wimberley council member Rebecca Minnick. ”Our aquifers know no city boundaries, so working closely with our neighboring jurisdictions is critical for the Wimberley Valley to preserve its most precious resource."
The planning efforts, Hammer said, could start as soon as this summer.
