Community: according to the Oxford American Dictionary, “the people of a district considered collectively, in the context of social values and responsibilities; a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals.”
Whether Dripping Springs could be considered a “community” is seriously in question.
After watching the greedy, selfish, arrogant antics of a number of our locals regarding what they considered to be appropriate uses of water in this historic drought almost brought me to tears during the regular meeting of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District on September 17, 2009 at the Dripping Springs City Hall.
If we are to survive as a community that can live on its own water supplies, we are going to have to make some serious changes to what is considered a good use of our water.
Howard Ranch, that charming little upscale housing project there on the south side of town at 150 and RR 12, apparently now using more than 40 acre/feet of water per year just to irrigate their lawns and gardens wants to now pump over 400 acre/feet per year so they can add another 100 or so homes, plus a small commercial district on that same location.
At present, only 15 families live in Howard Ranch, but they are already using about 2400 gallons per day per household. This stands in stark contrast to the typical household that uses about 200-300 gallons per day and those of us trying very hard to use much less, considering this is a finite resource and the weather lately is doing little to help us recharge our stores.
After doing their own calculations of how much water a typical house really needs (using TCEQ guidelines), the HTGCD counter-offered them a permit to pump 11 acre/feet per year. They were not amused and their attorney accused the Board of discriminating against them. For what? For trying to recreate Houston on the outskirts of disastrously dry Dripping Springs in the midst of a drought?
Do you have any idea how much water 40 acre/feet is? Well, let me tell you folks, this is a lot of water for just 15 households and the developer is proposing to increase that amount ten times over.
One acre/foot is essentially the amount of water it would take to fill a football field to a depth of one foot or 325,851 gallons. Multiply this by forty and that is over THIRTEEN MILLION GALLONS of water these fifteen families used last year.
This is being pumped directly out of the same aquifer we all keep hearing is running dry all over the area, but these fine citizens want to continue to pump these massive amounts out of our shared resource because, in the words of one resident, “My family benefits. My “landscape package” requires it.”
Well, excuse me, Mister, but your landscape “package” can kiss my brown lawn a howdy do.
To make matters worse, all of this is being used solely on landscaping. These people are using LCRA water for their interior household needs. I guess our groundwater isn’t good enough for them to drink. Well, it is sure good enough for me and my family to drink, assuming there is enough left when these community members are finished watering their lawns with it.
Do I sound angry? Well, you bet I am. This is simply outrageous.
This is the kind of thing that is making our local water resources endangered and insecure. This is the very definition of unsustainable development and this is sadly the tip of the iceberg. This is not the only development of its kind in this area and more are being proposed.
This is a present that cannot continue into the future.
We are in the worst drought of our lifetimes, with no end in sight, and there are some developers and citizens going about their business as if nothing were wrong with the rainfall levels, as if there were not wells going dry and as if thousands of their neighbors were not voluntarily cutting back on their water usage to make sure there was enough to go around.
Is this what people are thinking when they move to the Hill Country: “Hey, let’s re-locate to a relatively rural area that we know is dry in most summers and try to turn parts of it into Houston or Miami”? That this is accomplished by mining our groundwater supplies for their and their family’s benefit to the absolute detriment of everyone else in the community is an enormous insult to the concept of “community”.
This just isn’t neighborly behavior.
Is this a good idea and should this be allowed to continue unabated?
I do not think so and we need to have a good talk amongst ourselves as to just what is considered “beneficial use” and what is obviously ill-considered, wasteful, selfish and so short-sighted as to be downright stupid.
Doesn’t the City of Dripping Springs have any landscaping ordinances that might have alleviated this situation by requiring only drought-tolerant landscape designs or some sort of regulatory oversight into what gets planted over our aquifer? Who allowed this development and all those other lush, green suburban developments to be built in the first place, knowing all along how much water these acres of grass and tropical plants were going to use?
Do people need to take a water education class before being allowed to buy property over our aquifer? Does somebody need to school these folks on the realities of living in the Texas Hill Country?
No matter how bad some people want for this area to look like Houston, it just isn’t.
You know, that nice big road that cuts through Drippin’, Highway 290 West? Well, if you just get on it and travel east a ways, you will be in Houston in no time at all, where it rains a lot and where people still love you for your vast swaths of green grass and thirsty plants. People in Houston will not drive past your lush, green lawn and wonder whether that lawn is green at the expense of their being able turn on their tap and have water come out.
This isn’t the Wild West anymore.
You cannot move here and live out some self-centered dream of doing whatever you want to with your property, your family and OUR water, with no consideration whatsoever to the fact that your dream may quickly turn into someone else’s nightmare.
This is supposed to be a community. We need to pay attention or we will become, maybe already are, just a bunch of yahoos living in close proximity with no common interests whatsoever.
Goodbye “community”, say hello to “every-man-for-himself”.
Susan Cook
18 September 2009
“If we do not change direction, we will end up where we are headed." -Chinese proverb
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