Gilpin position on HB3298 Texas Water Grid /Pipeline bill

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Former EAA Director Gilpin's  position on HB3298 Texas Water Grid /Pipeline bill

Dear legislators,

Please oppose the HB 3298 water grid legislation on May 7 2015 in House debate.  The marketing of Texas water and trading of water/groundwater permits and water transport (pipelines or other forms of

transport) that facilitate private and corporate profits needs restrictions!


Our state is experiencing a public and natural water resource water crisis. Balancing water supply and demand in a way that maximizes public water security must take priority over maximizing profits of marketing water by increasing the ease of transport!



HB 3298 is premature and will make our water crisis worse.  It must come after mechanisms,  controls, and incentives to keep our water supply safe. 

Water/ground water marketing endangers our water supply.  HB 3298 would allow over-allocated, under-regulated EAA groundwater marketers to market more water-for-profit--selling to the highest bidders during the worst water crisis in our history.

  This would make the water shortage worse while maximizing private profits for a few.



I am a former EAA director from New Braunfels, I agree with the Sierra Club position on applying

priorities to the most efficient and proven strategies to create security for our natural water resources.

Their and my Number One Top Priority is to maximize water conservation. 




I am concerned that currently Texans have no comprehensive accounting of water demand and supply. 

Education is a top priority to accomplish this goal, but without enforceable regulations, neither the

Texas Legislature nor the voters can hold leaders on the EAA board accountable to correct this problem.
  The larger EAA pumpers control the EAA board as directors and their supporters while they  make money selling, leasing and trading OUR groundwater at the expense of the springs’ going dry and smaller pumpers’ going without water. 



If this dangerous bill passes, large pumpers will be able to pipe water to places previously banned and

they will create EAA regional water supply demands that will require the draining of the rest of the state

while they maximize their pumping during the worst of our state's drought periods.



In addition to making conservation a priority, we must have mechanisms to keep private-pumping-

profit-makers from being the decision makers on boards that regulate pumping and not allow them to

make decisions about how to manipulate weather, rainfall extremes and water supply options to maximize their private profits at risk of leaving the public dangerously out of balance with respect to water security.






The legislature must not continue its designation of the EAA board as a special board that manages its own board elections. 


 It must stop allowing pumpers or the board to use pumping permit fees to lobby for

legislative changes to maximize their pumping and groundwater permit marketing profits.

 Legislated EAA critical period implementation, regulation, and enforcement must be given to the

Texas Water Development Board.



The state legislature must create a state-ban on private and corporate marketing of

water/groundwater (or permits) during times of water crises.



This would facilitate statewide incentives to maintain an adequate supply to meet our state’s water demands.


 The use of all water must be comprehensively accounted for.  At this time there exist exemptions and policies of not disclosing to the public how much water is used by some of the biggest water using industries like oil and gas exploration, power plants and the quarry, aggregate and concrete industries. Also at the EAA board level EAA rules do not require critical period reductions in use of water by those with domestic and livestock wells exempt from permitting if they use less than 25,000 gallons of water per pay in spite of EAA act provisions allowing the EAA board to apply critical aquifer level period water use reductions to them. Senate Bill 3 of 2007 established critical period reduction levels that the EAA board refused to apply to pumping permit holders during the times of critical periods, EAA rules  allow pumping permitees to pump and market during time of critically low aquifer levels  most of their only slighlty reduced annual permits while they can make the most money while there is a water shortage.  Why has this not been corrected and allowed for 8 years?????  The EAA Board refusal to apply legislated pumping reductions during the time of critical period  must be aligned with the mandates and intent of legislated critical period pumping  reductions immediately.



All of this must happen before passing measures like HB3298.  Without water security measures in

place, such measures will cause more problems. No doubt Texas is far behind on balancing water supply

and demand.  Many types of strategies are needed to resolve this problem.



 Our state legislators by passing HB 3298 and by allowing the EAA board to ignore past legislation passed to protect over-use of the aquifer  is supporting dangerous  strategies that would maximize private marketing of water while creating a worse water crisis for the public.  



We must get our priorities straight.  The top goal must be a more secure public water supply.


We must effectively time-and-sequence-water-supply-strategies to better sustain our natural water resources.  



Our biggest spring-Comal Springs--the biggest west of the Mississippi River--has been dry most of the past 2 years.  As a former EAA director from New Braunfels where none of our major Comal springs naturally flow, I urge you to refuse to pass this dangerous bill.  



 I support this statement of position of the Sierra Club:

"Please oppose HB 3298 on the House General State Calendar for May 7. HB 3298 is a bill to direct the

Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to evaluate how to establish and operate "a water grid,

including an integrated network of pipelines, pumping stations, reservoirs, and other works for the

conveyance of water between river basins, water sources, and areas of water use in the state."



The water grid called for in HB 3298 is a California-style approach that is not right for Texas. It's too

costly; too damaging to our state's aquifers, rivers, and coastal bays and estuaries; too harmful to our

rural areas and agricultural production; and ultimately as you see now in California doomed to fail to

meet our state's water needs.





What we need most in Texas is to enhance our efforts to conserve water and use it more efficiently.



If Texas pursues a state water grid, as HB 3298 would do, that will only inflame the controversies over  how to provide water to meet the real needs of Texans.

  Instead let's focus on approaches that will allow Texans to protect and share our water resources, not penalize some areas of the state to take water to benefit other areas while doing little to balance the state's water supply and demand deficits. Please vote against HB 3298. "


https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy…

Sincerely, Cheryl Gilpin, former EAA director from New Braunfels where all our major Comal springs no

longer naturally flow and our biggest spring the biggest west of the Mississippi River stays dry most of

the past 2 years.

Posted by Until Justice and Water Flow at 6:13 AM