Media Advisory
Please attend hearing of Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, Wednesday, June 24, 7 pm Bastrop Convention Center, 1408 Chestnut
Today Hays County pulled plug on Forestar water reservation agreement. Tomorrow, End Op LP’s mega-water permit comes back to Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.
This morning, the Hays County Commissioners Court canceled their groundwater reservation agreement with Forestar Real Estate Group by a vote of 4 to 1. This agreement helped bolster Forestar’s continued litigation and pressure tactics against the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District to expand their permit from Lost Pines (granted in July 2013) from 12,000 acre-feet per year to 45,000 AFY (41 million gallons per day).
Tomorrow, another water marketer, End Op LP, is coming back to the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District for 46,000 AFY of groundwater, after having settled their disagreements with local water supplier, Aqua Water Supply Corporation. A state court appeal for disgruntled landowners who were shut out of party status in the Aqua-End Op dispute is still pending in Bastrop County.
Michele Gangnes, board member of the League of Independent Voters of Texas, said “We thank our friends in Hays County who stood up and locked arms with us here in the Lost Pines — Lee and Bastrop counties — to speak out against the Forestar contract. The hypocrisy of decrying Electro-Purification’s water grab of 2,000 acre-feet from under Hays County, while Hays County was enabling a much bigger grab of their neighbor’s water was obvious. Now we look forward to End Op’s arguments tomorrow. After we see what Lost Pines GCD is going to do about End Op, we’re on to fight ‘the San Antone hose’, otherwise known as Vista Ridge.” Gangnes is also a landowner who lives over the coveted Simsboro formation of the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer in Lee County and helped lead the grassroots effort that fought off San Antonio Water System’s water grab nearly 15 years ago.
Texas media following the central Texas water wars: come on out to Bastrop to see the next chapter unfold.