A campaign initiated in May by a local environmental group pushing the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District to consider adopting a new resolution regarding local groundwater policies is still continuing.

Environmental Stewardship, a non-profit group headquartered in Bastrop, recently submitted a letter to the LPGCD outlining the resolution they want passed and ultimately included in the desired future conditions of Groundwater Management Area 12 – the area encompassing numerous area water districts including the Lost Pines.

Following the resolution being discussed at LPGCD’s June 16 meeting, the issue was tabled until a response is received from the Texas Water Development Board regarding the LPGCD’s recently submitted desired future conditions.

But regardless of the issue being tabled, Environmental Stewardship and its director Steve Box are stepping up efforts to encourage public support for the resolution.

“Over-pumping of groundwater resources for export to other regions will likely have undesirable and unexpected impacts on the economic vitality and quality of life in our communities,” Box recently said in a statement regarding the campaign. “The Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District is under tremendous pressure to go along with water marketers and profiteers who want to draw down our water resources for profit. Safeguards are needed to ensure that our water supplies are protected well into the future.”

The resolution consists of a series of some 14 statements aimed at protecting groundwater and surface water relationships between the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer and the Colorado and Brazos rivers and their tributary streams.

The letter from Box was originally submitted to the LPGCD board of directors on May 19 references the groundwater information currently being disseminated by those such as Bill Hutchinson, the TWDB’s director of groundwater resources division.

According to a portion of the letter, “Based on the information presented to the LPGCD by Mr. Hutchinson and other state and regional entities over the past several years, it appears likely that the desired future conditions being submitted by GMA-12 to establish managed available groundwater will result in irreversible changes in the river-aquifer relationship. Given the importance of these water resources to our region, we believe it is imperative that actions be taken to monitor for such impacts and take corrective actions should they occur.”

Those wishing to access the full resolution may do so at www.envi
ronmental-stewardship.org.