Editor:

The recent drought has caused the death of a large number of pines on my property, as well as in our area. I am sure that many of you have noticed the numerous dead trees along roads and on your land as well.
If this drought can destroy as many of our pines and other trees as has just occurred, think what the proposed sale of 50 million gallons of groundwater per day for 80 years from Bastrop and Lee counties will do to the area. According to recent newspaper articles, the Limmer Group, dba End-Op, has signed a letter of intent with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority for the large scale transfer of this enormous amount of water from our two counties to the authority.
The Limmer Group includes former Williamson County Commissioner Frankie Limmer, John Doerfler, a former Williamson county judge and Joel Katz, a former chief financial officer for the software company Vignette and now an investor in several golf courses in Central Texas.
We, as voters and taxpayers in Bastrop and Lee counties, cannot allow the exploitation of our water resources for profit and gain. According to Joe Cooper, general manager of the Lost Pines Water Conservation Board, “We have a fight on our hands.” The board controls the issuance of water well permits for our counties. He stated that two production well permits have been issued to the Limmer Group, but currently there is a moratorium on the issuance of further well permits to anyone for production wells. This moratorium does not extend to the average residential permit.
He stated that we must contact our District 17 State Representative, Tim Kleinschmidt, to protest our opposition to the large scale sale of our water. Kleinschmidt’s address is P.O. Box 2190, Austin 78768, or you can find an email site for him on the Internet under Texas State Representative Tim Kleinschmidt.
We also need to support our Lost Pines Water Conservation Board by attending their monthly meetings which alternate between Bastrop and Lee counties and learning more about conservation of our water resources, types of permits and amounts of water that can be pumped from specific wells.
The next meetings are Feb. 17 in Giddings at city hall and March 17 in Bastrop at the city council chambers, starting at 7 pm. The Water Board is located at 908 Loop 230, Smithville, 78957, 512-360-5088, and the names of its 10 members and other information are posted on its Internet site.
Who can say how many more prolonged droughts we may experience in the future? More importantly, what of the increasing need of water due to the rapid population growth in our area?
No one, especially persons from other areas out to make huge profits and control enormous amounts of our water, has the right to sell a resource which belongs to each and every citizen and taxpayer. The water which flows beneath our properties belongs to each of us. I, for one, do not give any person or business permission to sell my share of this precious resource. Do you?
Endangered species in our area as well as our beautiful pine trees and other foliage may be gone forever if we allow the large scale removal of our groundwater to occur. Many visitors come to our area specifically to enjoy the beauty of the magnificent pines and our peaceful lovely parks and recreational areas. All of us must work together to fight this exploitation of our natural resources. If we do not, this area indeed may become that of the lost pines.

Kay Weiss,
Bastrop
kkweiss @aol.com