Updated January 5, 2025. By Harold “Skip” Connett and Steve Box As more development converges in Bastrop County’s Wilbarger Bend, landowners are increasingly alarmed by its potential harm to the Lower Colorado River and the aquifers beneath it that they depend on for their livelihoods. A recent administrative court ruling in a requested contested case…
Press Release Environmental Stewardship Given Green Light to Challenge TCEQ’s Management of the Lower Colorado River Bastrop, TX. February 9, 2024. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. CONTACT: Steve Box, Executive Director, Environmental Stewardship, 512-300-6609, info@envstwardship.org. Richard Martin, a long-time Bastrop County angler, and Environmental Stewardship (ES) moved a big step closer this week to arguing their…
Colorado River water quality and location of The Boring Company, SpaceX, and Tesla gigaplant.
We are pleased and grateful to claim a partial victory in the contested case hearing on LCRA’s application for a groundwater pumping permit. The judges have issued a Proposal for Decision (PFD) that includes the recommendation that surface water monitoring must be done by LCRA as a part of the permit. See the attached press release and summary of the key findings as they relate to surface waters.
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Environmental Stewardship’s legal team — Marisa Perales (center) and Eric Allmon (right) — cross-examining Lost Pines District’s hydrogeologist William Hutchison (left) on the impacts of LCRA’s pumping on the Colorado River.
A contested case hearing before two Administrative Law Judges on LCRA’s application for a permit to pump up to 8.15 billion gallons of groundwater annually from underneath Bastrop County ended on October 22, 2019. Environmental Stewardship and the landowners were successful in making their arguments before the judges who are expected to render an opinion next spring … likely late April or May.
After hearing six days of testimony, Administrative Law Judges Rebecca Smith and Ross Henderson of the State Office of Administrative Hearings set a procedural schedule that lays out the next steps of what has been a year-long process. The eight parties in the case have until December 20th to file their final closing arguments and until January 31, 2020 to file written rebuttals or replies.
The administrative law judges will make a recommendation in the form of a “proposal for decision” to the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District’s Board of Directors. Lost Pines District is the local government entity that manages groundwater resources, regulates pumping, and sets desired future conditions in Bastrop and Lee counties.
THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED with LINKS to ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Hearing on LCRA’s Application for Groundwater Permit – October 15-18 – Bastrop Convention Center, Bastrop, Texas. A brief summary of Days 1-4 of the hearing. What follows is a summary of what happened at the first four days of the hearing. The focus is from a perspective of Environmental Stewardship (ES) and the Landowners’ cases and…
Protestants admitted as parties to LCRA Contested Case Hearing at December 19th Prehearing Conference.
A hearing to determine party status of 127 individuals and organizations protesting LCRA’s application for a permit to pump groundwater from Bastrop County was held on December 19, 2018. The hearing was ordered by State Office of Administrative Hearing Law Judges (ALJs) Michael J. O’Malley and Laura M. Valdez.
Environmental Stewardship and a group of 43 landowners were admitted as parties to the contested case hearing to be held next fall. Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, Aqua Water Supply Corporation, City of Elgin, and Recharge Water, LP, along with 12 unrepresented landowners were also admitted. To ensure that all parties have a justiciable interest, each entity and individual is required to file an affidavit no later than February 9, 2019 (Order 2). Any objections to party status must be filed no later than February 19, 2019.
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