Megan Navarro
AUSTIN — Aqua Texas will be receiving penalties and fines for multiple violations, following approval by the Barton Springs Edwards-Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) Board of Directors during its meeting held Thursday, Feb. 12.
These are for reports of investigation and notices of alleged violation (NOAV) for the initiation of enforcement proceedings concerning Aqua Texas, Inc. — Onion Creek Meadows system, Shady Hollow Estates system, Bliss Spillar (Middle Trinity) and Bliss Spillar (Lower Trinity) — for the failure to reduce pumping during BSEACD’s declared drought.
Enforcement
It takes two monthly occurrences of non-compliance within a six-month period to trigger an enforcement action, according to Erin Swanson, regulatory compliance manager, and it is considered to be an overpumpage of monthly drought when it is at 5% or more.
For the first occurrence, staff will initiate pre-enforcement discussions to figure out what is happening, the reasons for overpumpage and if any actions have been taken to resolve it. Then, the second occurrence is when staff will refer the case to the board with a recommendation to issue a NOAV.
“When looking at the penalties that will be assessed, there are different factors that play into those assessments. The first thing is the allotted volume and what tier that puts them in,” Swanson explained. “Basically, the more volume allocation that you have, the higher the bills can be. Same with the level of overlap. The more you overpumped, the higher the penalties can be.”
Once penalty ranges are calculated, Swanson said that staff can apply adjustments based on the following:
• The severity or seriousness of the violation
• Whether the violation was willful, intentional or could have been reasonably anticipated and avoided
• Whether the violator acted in good faith to avoid or mitigate the violation or to correct the violation after it became apparent and compensate those affected
• Economic gain obtained by the violator through the violation
• Whether similar violations have been committed in the past
• The amount necessary to defer future violations
• Any other matter that justice may require
Violations
The investigation report summary found that Aqua’s systems overpumped by:
• Onion Creek Meadows: October at 15%, December at 22% and January at 34%
• Shady Hallows: September at 33%, October at 28%, November at 38%, December at 47% and January at 20%
• Bliss Spillar (Middle Trinity): June at 14%, October at 14%, December at 8% and January at 21%
• Bliss Spillar (Lower Trinity): November at 9%, December at 41% and January at 48%
Aqua Texas was notified of the first occurrence of non-compliance for the Onion Creek Meadows and Shady Hollow systems, as well as the second occurrence for the Bliss Spillar (Middle Trinity) system in November 2025, Swanson said. It was then notified of additional occurrences of non-compliance for those systems and Bliss Spillar’s (Lower Trinity) first and second occurrences Jan. 7, 2026.
Then, on Jan. 8, a representative of Aqua Texas stated that drought curtailments and staff turnover were contributing factors, but that staff would discuss internally to determine if there were any other contributing factors. BSEACD followed up with Aqua about the internal discussions and received additional details in February.
According to Swanson, Aqua will be looking into interconnections, drought targets and deploying additional leak detection and investigations into the Onion Creek system, as there was a main break reported in October. Shady Hollow also had several factors that “caused them to have to flush the system several times and they are also investigating leaks in that one,” she said.
The final penalty ranges that Swanson calculated are between $10,000-$20,000 for Onion Creek, $25,600-$51,200 for Shady Hollow, $6,000-$12,000 for Middle Trinity and $4,500-$9,000 for Lower Trinity.
“For three of the four systems, I'm recommending [the] high range. These systems are Onion Creek Meadows — the high range is warranted for this system because we previously went through enforcement with them back in June of 2025. For Bliss Spillar Middle Trinity, again, the high range because we’ve had issues with compliance with the Bliss Spillar system in the past,” Swanson said. “Lower Trinity also the high range, again, the Bliss Spillar [had] system issues with compliance and we also went through an enforcement case with them.”
The only one that is being recommended for a different range is Shady Hollow because that is the first occurrence for this particular system, Swanson said.
“Normally, I would recommend the low range for this, but because we will get Aqua as a whole as a permittee, I am recommending the mid-range … It seemed like there were a lot of issues that were not in control of Aqua and even with those issues, if you look at the pumpage for that system, it did consistently go down every month, but the other systems, that was not the case; it bounced back and forth,” she said.
Following more discussion and executive session, the board unanimously voted to accept staff’s recommendation for the penalties for the four entities at $9,000 for Bliss Spillar Lower Trinity, $12,000 for Bliss Spillar Middle Trinity, $20,000 for Onion Creek and $38,400 for Shady Hollow.
To listen to the full meeting recording, visit www.bseacd.org/agendas.
