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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Voters approved the Victoria County groundwater district in November 2005. What's the current status of the district?
A: Our status is: We're under construction.
Since the district was approved by 73 percent of the voters, our board has been busy studying all the laws, procedures and practices that we must stay abreast of in order to run a groundwater district professionally.
We've also opened up our office, hired a degreed, knowledgeable and well-respected general manager and are advertising for an office secretary.
We got started by operating on contributed funds from the county commissioners but are now receiving revenues from our 1-cent tax rate.
Our fiscal 2007 budget is $425,000 - and we'll need it all to get this district built in such a way that it will be able to fulfill its mandate of protecting the county's underground water supply.
Our next big task is to develop the management plan and rules under which the district will operate.
Q: Why is the district planning public hearings?
A: It's part of the process of developing our management plan and rules. We want to give the public ample opportunity for input into that important process.
Public input at this stage of management plan and rule development will result, the district's board feels, in communitywide consensus on how to manage groundwater - and in broad support of the new plan and rules.
It is the district's wish to write a plan and rules that will fit the present and future groundwater needs of the citizens.
Public comment was first taken in a meeting held with Victoria County's water-well drillers in late summer. That comment is already being incorporated into our draft plan and rules.
Two more meetings will be scheduled to take public input when results from various surveys are received and reviewed:
- A meeting with the county's largest users of groundwater.
- A meeting with the general public and owners of smaller water wells.
Q: Why should the general public be concerned with your management plan and rules?
A: Because they'll determine how county residents will be able to use groundwater in the future.
They'll be the first rules ever written specifically to manage groundwater in Victoria County.
New groundwater districts like ours are empowered by the Legislature to craft the management plan and rules that best suit our particular aquifers and the needs of our particular set of groundwater users.
They'll cover everything from the district's philosophy of groundwater use to the amount of water a well will be allowed to pump, from the way wells must be constructed to the fees to be charged for exporting groundwater from the county.
Q: How can I comment on what I think the plan and rules should include?
A: We want to hear from you, so we're making it easy. You can:
- Comment at our public hearings
- Send us an e-mail via our district Web site, www.vcgcd.org
- Fax a comment to us at 361-579-0041
- Mail a comment to our office at 2805 N. Navarro St., Suite 210 Victoria, Texas 77901.
- Or come by the office in person and drop off a written comment.
Q: Will the public also get a chance to comment on the proposed or first version of the management plan and rules?
A: Yes. Here's how that will work: After our public meetings, the district will review all the public comment received and then develop its first draft of the proposed management plan and rules.
That draft will be made available for additional public review and comment - and the district will make adjustments to the draft as guided by public input.
Once that's done, the board will consider the management plan and rules for adoption.
Q: How long will the process take?
A: State law gives a new district three years, or in our case until Nov. 2008, to complete its management plan and rules.
But our district directors would like to have their plan and rules completed before the three years are up - perhaps as early as this year.
Q: How does a district's management plan differ from a district's rules?
A: The management plan outlines the district's broad goals and objectives for managing the aquifer.
Specific rules are implemented as a way to accomplish the objectives of the management plan.
Q: What are some of the major issues you are grappling with as you develop your management plan and rules?
A: The basic plank in all this is the question of sustainability.
We support sustainability. That means district directors intend to sustain Victoria County's portion of the Gulf Coast Aquifer in its current condition, rather than allow its volume to be depleted or the quality of its water to be degraded. This concept is known in the world of groundwater as sustainability.
So while district directors will take comment and entertain arguments to the contrary during the management plan and rule making process, we fully intend to write rules supportive of the doctrine of sustainability. Such rules, which by state law we are authorized to enact, are likely to include limiting the amount of underground water that can be produced by certain wells and requiring new wells to be spaced at reasonable distances from existing wells.
Other issues on the table include:
- Pumping limits. Limits are necessary to protect the resource, but how restrictive should those production limits be - and how should they be determined? Some districts set limits based on the amount of land owned surrounding a well, so that a certain number of gallons are permitted per surface acre owned. Some set production fees based on the amount of water used, in hopes that those charges will lead to voluntary conservation.
- Out-of-county export fee. By law, wells to be used for out-of-county groundwater exports cannot have more restrictive pumping limits assigned to them. But the district can levy an export surcharge. Should that surcharge be maximized or minimized and how should the amount be determined?
- Mitigation. Mitigation in this case means compensating a well owner in some way for harm done to his well by a neighboring well. Should big-volume pumpers be required under district rules to pay for damages to neighboring wells or to the aquifer? How would such a requirement be applied?
- Historic use. Should the district assign pumping limits to existing wells based on the historic use of that well? What about such cases as the city of Victoria's water-supply wells and rice-field-irrigation wells in which historic use was much greater in the past than it is in the present? And what effects will historic use allocations have upon future development of Victoria County?
- Well spacing. What rules should be adopted for well spacing, which requires new wells to be a certain distance from an existing well or from a property line? A big question with well spacing will be trying to find common ground between adequate well spacing needs and the lot sizes developers want for new housing subdivisions.
- Should we regulate the ranchette? Under state law, we could impose production limits and district fees on wells on ranchettes, or homes on lots of less than 10 acres. State laws do not allow us to impose production limits or charge fees on small (those not producing more than 25,000 gallons of groundwater per day) domestic and agricultural wells on tracts larger than 10 acres. But lawmakers gave us the option to regulate wells on ranchettes, because a new subdivision with, say, 100 ranchettes, each with a new well, could put a lot of additional strain on an aquifer that previously had supplied maybe just one or two wells.
- Well construction rules. What standards should be adopted for water-well construction?
- Meters on wells. Should water meters be required on non-exempt wells to more accurately track water use? The more accurately the district can track the amount of groundwater actually used, the better it can manage the resource.
- Well registration. Should owners of existing wells be required to register their wells with the district? Well registration can be a valuable aid in management of the resource. Should there be a registration fee? Should unregistered wells be eligible for exemption?
- Fees and permits. What types of procedures and fees for registering and permitting new wells should be put in place?
- Rules for abandoned wells. How should abandoned wells be handled under the rules?
- Water conservation. How should "vanity ponds" and flowing artesian wells be handled?
- Should well drillers and pump installers be required to register with the district?
Q: You said 73 percent of voters voted in favor of the district. Why the landslide vote in favor of the district?
A: The overwhelming voter support followed legislative action designating locally controlled groundwater districts as the state's preferred method of protecting a county's underground water supplies, coupled with the possibility that drought and population growth in places like San Antonio and Corpus Christi could drive out-of-county interests to seek groundwater from Victoria County to supplement their own supplies.
Prior to the birth of our district, the state's old rule of capture held sway in Victoria County. That rule allows landowners or exporters to claim all the groundwater they could pump, even if that pumping were to cause levels in neighboring wells to fall, damage water quality or hurt economic growth.
But our new management plan and rules will allow us to conserve and protect Victoria County's groundwater supply for the benefit of county residents, economic stability and environmental needs - and to balance competing demands for water, such as domestic, municipal, agricultural and industrial needs.
Q: Doesn't the district need to do scientific studies on the groundwater resource before it can attempt to manage it in a fully informed way?
A: Indeed we do. But the way the system is set up, we're going to have to put our plan and rules in place, then conduct studies. We can amend our plan and rules if the studies call for it. We have some basic scientific information, but intend to fund additional scientific studies in order to learn as much as we can about how to best manage our aquifer. This will be expensive, but necessary. Very little scientific data now exists concerning the aquifer beneath Victoria County. For instance, we do not know with certainty how much water is there to meet the demands of users. We do not know with certainty how quickly the aquifer replenishes pumped-out supplies with rain.
Q: Who runs the district?
A: The voters, via a popularly elected five-member board of directors.
Current directors are Barbara Dietzel, Thurman S. Clements Jr., Kenneth Eller, Jerry Hroch and chairman Mark Meek.
Four of the directors are elected from the four precincts of Victoria County. The fifth holds an at-large or countywide seat. Terms of office are for four years, with Precincts 1 (Hroch) and 3 (Dietzel) elected unopposed in Nov. 2006 and the at-large seat (Eller) and Precincts 2 (Clements) and 4 (Meek) up for election in 2008.
The current directors have established a reputation for being credible, accountable and proactive. They stay abreast of issues and run the district professionally. They have been very busy, traveling far and wide to visit other groundwater districts, regional water planners, groundwater-management-area groups and so on - and have gained a deep understanding of all that is involved in running a groundwater district.
Q: How is the district funded?
A: The district is funded through an ad valorem tax in the amount of 1 cent per $100 of assessed valuation. Its fiscal 2007 budget is $425,000. The 1-cent tax rate means that the owner of a $100,000 home pays only about $10 per year in taxes to support the groundwater district.
Q: How can someone contact the district?
A: Contact us at:
Victoria County Groundwater Conservation District
2805 N. Navarro St., Suite 210
Victoria, Texas 77901
361-579-6863
fax: 361-579-0041
Email: tim.andruss@vcgcd.org
Website: http://www.vcgcd.org
General Manager: Tim Andruss |
