Proposed groundwater transfer riles Kendall County residents

BOERNE — A miniature version of the Vista Ridge pipeline dispute is unfolding here over a local utility’s bid to convey groundwater to its customers from a new well proposed miles outside its service area.

As with the San Antonio Water System’s plan to pipe in water 140 miles from Burleson County, some here are upset by Kendall West Utility’s plans to mine the aquifer in their area for the benefit of people several miles away on the other side of town.

“My concern is that the well will draw down the water table for residents who have been here forever,” Rod Fowler said Thursday.

He’s among the Kendall Ranch Estates homeowners who were surprised to learn last month of KWU’s request for a permit to drill a well on a 1.55-acre lot adjacent to their subdivision off Cascade Caverns Road and to pipe the water to growing areas outside Boerne.

The Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District board tabled the matter at a meeting last month amid a barrage of objections and questions. There was no analysis on how the new well would affect groundwater availability for surrounding users, critics complained, nor has there been a study of potential environmental effects from the well and pipeline.

After revisiting the issue July 11, district officials announced plans to conduct a hydrological study in the area, where the Trinity Aquifer already serves four public water supply wells, three owned by the city of Boerne.

“We have concerns about the potential drawdown. We needed more information,” said Milan Michalec, president of the district’s board. Its members, he conceded, “hadn’t done our homework” on the issue.

KWU owner John Mark Matkin defended his plan to transfer water to his service area north and west of Boerne, where the utility has nine existing wells and which includes the Tapatio Springs Golf Resort.

“It benefits everyone to have diverse well locations to preclude drawing down the water table in one area,” he said.

The project also is intended to benefit the proposed Miralomas subdivision, a large development once known as Lerin Hills that borders the KWU service area. The subdivision and utility plan to build a 6.5-mile pipeline to deliver water from Canyon Lake that both entities reserved years ago in contracts with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.

The utility plans to mix the GBRA water and groundwater from its new well in a 100,000 gallon storage tank at the well site before it goes in the pipeline. Because it’s in the city of Boerne’s utility service area, the city will need to indicate it doesn’t object to the project, Michalec said.

Matkin said he sees few parallels to Vista Ridge, noting his well would merely tap a more productive area of the Trinity Aquifer, while SAWS “is going out and getting water from a completely different aquifer.”

Permit opponent Allan Bloxsom, an engineer, also drew a distinction, pointing out that SAWS leased pumping rights from landowners in Burleson County to secure water there.

KWU, on the other hand, is “a for-profit utility who’s come over to our section of Kendall County to drain our water for their benefit and to our detriment,” he said, adding, “They should have made sure there was adequate water in their area before developing the subdivisions.”

Micah Voulgaris, Cow Creek district’s general manager, said there’s nothing in the district rules prohibiting the transfer of groundwater within or out of the district, whose borders match those of Kendall County.

He proposed that KWU’s well application be handled as an amendment to its existing pumping permit, which allows the utility to pump a total of up to 500 acre-feet of water annually from its wells, he said. The utility pumped only 44 acre-feet last year because it began getting its GBRA water — the city of Boerne is delivering it under a temporary contract that ended the utilitiy’s complete reliance on groundwater.

Voulgaris said the district has limited discretion on well permits under the state Water Code.

“If you own property in the district, you’re going to be able to drill a well, but you’ll have to follow the restrictions set by the district,” he said.

Although a lot size of 6 acres or larger is required to drill a domestic household well — which are exempt from the district’s permitting and metering requirements — no such minimum exists for commercial or industrial wells, Voulgaris said.

Based on the small size of the KWU lot, Voulgaris said, the pumping rate for a well there couldn’t exceed 25,000 gallons a day, which would be far less than the remaining acre-feet of water the utility is permitted to pump.

Kendall County commissioners have been drawn into the fray because KWU plans to install part of its pipeline in easements along county roads. Last week, project opponents asked commissioners to prohibit that, but Matkin said, “As a public utility, I have a right to use the right-of-way.”

Cascade Caverns owner Lance Kyle, calling water the lifeblood of his tourist attraction near the proposed well site, fears the cave could dry up if wells deplete the aquifer and put threatened salamander species found there at risk.

“I hope the commissioners can intervene in some way,” he told them.

A drop in the water table could force each resident to spend $10,000 or more on well modifications, Gene Gibbs, who lives near the well site, told commissioners. He referred to Matkin as “a water baron” and the Tapatio resort as “a water-sucking hog.”

Commissioners took no action, but County Judge Darrel Lux told speakers he understood their passion.

“When you talk about water, it’s vital to everything we have,” he said.

Matkin said afterward, “The same people who don’t want me to drill a well now don’t want me to build a pipeline to bring in GBRA water. Isn’t that ironical?”

County Attorney Don Allee raised another potential complication: restrictions placed on groundwater use at Lerin Hills, which Miralomas inherited last year when it took over the 867-acre project off Texas 46.

Anticipating a reliance on piped-in GBRA water, commissioners prohibited any wells there except for firefighting and monitoring the aquifer, according to a note on the final plat approved in 2014. That restriction might bar Miralomas from using the blended groundwater and surface water piped in by KWU, Allee said, even if the volume doesn’t exceed Miralomas’ annual allocation of 750 acre-feet of GBRA water.

Miralomas engineer Charles Cook dismissed Allee’s concern.

“We’re restricted from sinking wells on our property. We don’t intend to do any,” Cook said. “There’s no other agreement.”