12 hours Ago By JOE SOUTHERN [email protected]
Brazos County and the cities of Bryan and College Station have joined forces in a lawsuit aimed at stopping water being taken from the Simsboro Aquifer for use nearly 100 miles away in Georgetown and the surrounding area. The county commissioners on Tuesday unanimously agreed to share a third of the cost with the two cities in hiring an attorney to protest the proposed water transfer from Robertson County, which also utilizes the Simsboro Aquifer. “I just want to say that we’ve always been told all along that water is the next oil.
We’re there,” Commissioner Steve Aldrich said. “And being able to maintain the ability to have resources available for our community in its future I think are extremely important and I’m glad we’re involved in this.” County Judge Duane Peters said protecting water supplies is critical to the area.
“Water is critical to not only Brazos County, but Robertson County, which the request has been made to transport that to, I think right now, to Williamson County, and that’s what this is about, to stop shifting water from our local area to somewhere else,” Peters said. “And we end up trying to figure out how we’re going to cover water uses, not only in Brazos County but Hearne, Franklin, Calvert — they’ll all be impacted by that if this happens. So I’m glad we’re a part of that suit.
” In a statement, Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez said the city has worked hard to manage water resources. “Our community has worked diligently to protect and manage these water resources,” he said. “We hope other public and private water users, such as Up Well, are committed to conserving Brazos Valley’s water resources, including water in the Simsboro Aquifer.
” Bryan hired attorney Jim Mathews of Mathews and Freeland, P.C., and the county and College Station will reimburse the city their shares of the bill.
Mathews will represent the cities and the county in discussions, state hearings, lawsuits and other interactions involving local water permits, according to the city. In May, seven applicants applied for a transport permit with co-applicant Up Well Brazos Valley Farm LLC and all were approved for consideration by the Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District (BVGCD). The applicants included Clifford A.
Skiles III, James C. Brien, L. Wiese Moore LLC, Cula d’Brazos LLC, Ely Family Partnership LP, and Fazzino Investments LP.
“San Francisco-based Up Well LLC, which is backed by over $1 billion in capital from New York and Wall Street investors, is pursuing permits to extract up to 100,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Simsboro Aquifer, a critical water source for communities, agriculture, and institutions in the Brazos Valley. This amount of water is equivalent to over two times the amount of water currently used annually by the cities of Bryan, Calvert, College Station, Franklin, and Hearne — COMBINED,” Bryan city officials said in a statement. The Texas A&M University System also opposes the water transfer proposal.
Burn ban, disaster declaration extended Even though Brazos County received much-needed rain in the last few days, it was not enough for the commissioners to end the burn ban or the disaster declaration. In fact, both were extended at Tuesday’s session. “I did speak with the fire chiefs [Monday] night in reference not only to the declaration, but the burn ban itself and currently our conditions are still dry, even after yesterday’s rain we only got about a half an inch across most of the county,” said Jason Ware, deputy emergency management coordinator for Brazos County.
“Our numbers only improved a slight bit, so it is the recommendation that we continue this for at least the next 30 days or however long we need to until we get some more beneficial rain. We have a very slight chance of rain over the next seven days so the conditions will probably start deteriorating again over the next few weeks or so.” Peters made the initial disaster declaration on Oct.
17. That order was set to expire Wednesday, but the court unanimously extended it another 30 days. Dead wood donation The county entered into an interlocal agreement with The Texas Historical Commission to donate dead trees from the Boonville Cemetery for use at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site.
According to the agreement, the county has several dead trees to remove from the cemetery and the historic site is in need of the trees for renovation work being done there. The county will make available timbers that are at least 4 inches in diameter and 16 feet in length. Washington-on-the-Brazos will be responsible for collecting and hauling the timbers.
“I just think it’s great that we have to have an interlocal agreement to deal with dead trees that we’re taking down, to transfer that property. That’s pretty unique,” Aldrich said. “A lot of people don’t understand the .
.. steps you have to go through as a local government, particularly a county government, to be able to do something like this.
” “You’ll be able to visit your trees if you want to at Washington-on-the-Brazos,” noted Brazos County General Counsel Bruce Erratt..
