San Antonio – Residents north of Comfort, Texas, are raising alarms over a proposed high-density development they say could threaten their water supply.
“If the aquifers go dry, all of our property is worth zero, and we can’t live here,” said Roy Die, a local property owner.
Die warns that the area cannot support the water demand for the 1,100 new homes planned by a national developer.
Micah Voulgaris, general manager of the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District, acknowledged the county can sustain more growth but emphasized it must be managed responsibly.
“We can have more growth that’s not unbridled, do whatever you want, wild west type of development,” he said.
To protect resources, measures could include requiring developers to seek alternative water sources besides groundwater and mandating native or xeric landscaping.
When asked why the county does not require more homes to have rainwater catchment systems, Voulgaris said the county currently lacks the authority to enforce such measures.
“I think that would be a good thing for the legislature to give counties that option,” he said.
However, the groundwater district does limit how much water each property owner can withdraw from their wells. One of only a few districts in the state that has that rule.
“That kind of gives developers, for lack of a better word, a line in the sand that says you can go past this,” Voulgaris explained.
The discussion highlights the balancing act Kendall County faces as it navigates growth while protecting vital water resources.
Kendall County residents get their water from the Trinity Aquifer, a complex underground catchment system that is different for every resident.
“It’s not just a homogeneous layer that, you know, everything is the same in there,” Voulgaris said. “So you can have neighbors, who literally, one guy drills a well right here, and it’ll be 15 gallon a 15-gallon-per-minute well. And his neighbor might have two or three gallons a minute. And then the next neighbor might have four gallons a minute, and so it’s not just as uniform as the Edwards Aquifer is.”
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