Support SB 2660 to Protect Hays County's Water
SBCA asks you to sign this petition by 8am on Monday (April 14) to support Senate Bill 2660:
SB 2660 will give the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District the authority it needs to responsibly manage the county’s water supply, while exempting household and agricultural wells from any fee hikes. The Senate Water Committee will hear SB 2660 at its meeting on Monday morning (April 14).
THE PROBLEM: Most Hays County residents rely on wells for their water supply. On the west side of the county, the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (GCD) issues permits for wells drilled into the Trinity Aquifer, while the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) manages well permits on the east side. But while the two districts have equal responsibility for managing the county’s water supply, they don’t have equal authority. When the Texas Legislature created the Hays Trinity GCD in 1999, it hobbled the district with an inadequate and unreliable funding structure, and with weaker provisions that deviate from the laws governing other groundwater conservation districts in the state.
As a result, the Hays Trinity GCD has had difficulties with well owners who won’t comply with their permits. The investor-owned water utility Aqua Texas overpumped its permit by 90 million gallons in 2022 and by 70 million gallons in 2023, which contributed to the loss of spring flow at Jacobs Well. Yet rather than agreeing to follow the rules that the Hays Trinity GCD has established to benefit all of its permit holders, Aqua Texas has actually filed suit to reduce the district’s already restricted authority. Everyone in western Hays who gets their water from a well that isn’t owned by Aqua Texas will be the loser if the company succeeds in its blatant water grab. (You can learn more about the Aqua Texas controversy from SBCA’s partners at The Watershed Association here, here, here, and here.)
