Environmental Stewardship Protests LCRA’s Pumping Plan

LCRA wants to embark on a highly questionable groundwater pumping plan in Bastrop County that has clear potential to reduce the water flowing in the Colorado River and its tributaries. This powerful state agency has asked the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District to grant a pumping permit to withdraw an astonishing 25,000-acre feet of groundwater a year from the Simsboro formation of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer under Bastrop and nearby counties. This aquifer is the area’s principal water source.

The non-profit organization Environmental Stewardship, the City of Elgin, numerous Bastrop County landowners, the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District and two water supply companies have all opposed this proposal. They fear such precipitous pumping would not only reduce flow in the Colorado River and its tributaries below Austin, it could also dry up water wells across the region. Flow of the river and its tributaries could drop below levels necessary to maintain normal ecological functions (subsistence flows) or actually go dry during drought conditions. Landowners and municipalities could face huge expenses deepening existing wells or having to drill new ones altogether.

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