EAA offers incentives to keep irrigators from pumping

VISPO program in second year

CASTROVILLE, Texas – The Edwards Aquifer Authority is working to battle an historic drop of the Edwards Aquifer by offering incentives for irrigators to stop pumping.

Called VISPO, or Voluntary Irrigation Suspension Program Option, the program was developed to protect spring flows as mandated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service through the Endangered Species Act.

VISPO works by paying irrigators, who sign up for either a five- or 10-year plan, $50 per acre foot of water that they own. This payment would be guaranteed each year by the Edwards Aquifer Authority. 

However, irrigators must also agree not to pump in the next calendar year, should the Edwards Aquifer (J-17 well) be at or below 635 feet as of Oct. 1 the previous year. 

For all of the water that is not pumped during that time, the EAA would pay $150 per acre foot.

The program works similarly to an insurance program.

"It's intended to be financial security on (the irrigator's) part from not being able to use their water to produce a crop, and its demand reduction on our part, so it's a win-win," said Rick Illgner, who heads the program for the EAA.

The goal of the EAA is to get back a promised 40,000 acre feet of water by Oct. 1 -- 40,000 acre feet of water can be thought of as nearly 40,000 football fields, each filled with feet of water.

This is the second year of the program and while many have enrolled according to Illgner, the target has yet to be reached. The EAA expects a surge of enrollees in September.