Serving Kerr County with a Conscience
Are Water Well Meters a Phantom or Reality?
I became interested in water issues several years ago when I heard the government was planning to place meters on residential water wells. The threat was real. It could mean a limit on the amount of water I could pump from my own well or maybe a tax on the water I did pump. There was always the possibility of both a limit and a tax.
I was worried and defiant.
I wanted to know when the meters were coming and find out which officials were behind them. What could I do to stop this interference with my own private property rights especially my right to pump water from underneath my own land?
After all, the 2005 Texas Legislature had determined that our state might not have enough water during future droughts if our projected population growth materialized. This was serious. It might not just be the local authorities but the state might really have an interest in my personal water well.
I began attending public meetings, reading, researching and talking to people who really knew about water. A strange reality surfaced. Nobody outside Kerr County was talking about water meters. Reading and research produced nothing on private well meters.
The threat was isolated to Kerr County.
A very ominous pattern finally became evident. A select few investor/developer/realtor types are very skilled at attending local board meetings and water workshops to threaten a citizens uprising when any responsible water planning item is scheduled. One recently threatened to ‘fill up the Callioux’ with people fighting water meters if the board even considered a totally unrelated issue. How he extrapolated the agenda item to water meters was puzzling until I realized his own stake in the issue at hand.
Knowledge gained at meetings in surrounding counties and regional water planning groups has been enlightening. Water meter paranoia is absent.
I have come to the conclusion that any time I spend worrying about a meter on my well means I have been outfoxed into wasting my time and energy on a phantom threat. I now know the water meter threat is a sly diversion from the real issue of whether there will be any water in my well to pump.
I was worried and defiant.
I wanted to know when the meters were coming and find out which officials were behind them. What could I do to stop this interference with my own private property rights especially my right to pump water from underneath my own land?
After all, the 2005 Texas Legislature had determined that our state might not have enough water during future droughts if our projected population growth materialized. This was serious. It might not just be the local authorities but the state might really have an interest in my personal water well.
I began attending public meetings, reading, researching and talking to people who really knew about water. A strange reality surfaced. Nobody outside Kerr County was talking about water meters. Reading and research produced nothing on private well meters.
The threat was isolated to Kerr County.
A very ominous pattern finally became evident. A select few investor/developer/realtor types are very skilled at attending local board meetings and water workshops to threaten a citizens uprising when any responsible water planning item is scheduled. One recently threatened to ‘fill up the Callioux’ with people fighting water meters if the board even considered a totally unrelated issue. How he extrapolated the agenda item to water meters was puzzling until I realized his own stake in the issue at hand.
Knowledge gained at meetings in surrounding counties and regional water planning groups has been enlightening. Water meter paranoia is absent.
I have come to the conclusion that any time I spend worrying about a meter on my well means I have been outfoxed into wasting my time and energy on a phantom threat. I now know the water meter threat is a sly diversion from the real issue of whether there will be any water in my well to pump.
0 Comments
Agenda – Kerr County Conscience Meeting
02/06/10 10:05 Filed in: Meetings
Agenda – Kerr County Conscience Meeting
Thursday, June 10, 2010
7:00 p.m.
American Legion Hall, Center Point
The public is cordially invited
and we look forward to meeting you!
THE ISSUES
Despite published announcements of slight increases, county taxes have risen substantially for some folks in the eastern part of Kerr County. Property owners have minimal time to file an appeal. We plan to talk about how to do that.
Now that the law regarding the Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) has been interpreted to avoid arbitration between the city and the county, we’ll discuss what the ETJ is and how it affects us all.
Learn the proper and legal way to handle it, when you know someone has begun a building or clearing project that involves waterway or floodplain, or on the banks of a waterway.
THE MEETING
- Sign-in and Opportunity to Join Kerr County Conscience
- Call to Order, Introductions, and Announcements
- Minutes
- Treasurer’s Report
- Issues
- Discussion
- Adjourn
NOTES
You’re cordially invited to join Kerr County Conscience, if you have not done so already. E-membership is $5/year. Mailed memberships are $15/year, to cover postage and/or supplies.
If you’re mailing your membership, or a (much needed, much appreciated) contribution to the cause, please send % KCC Membership Chairman, PO Box 127, Center Point, TX 78010. Thank you!
Refreshments are served to members and guests, before and after the meeting, at no charge. However, if you would like to donate to the “Treats Kitty,” KCC would like to say, “Thank you!”
A QUARRY NEIGHBOR'S QUANDARY
28/05/10 12:19 Filed in: Quarries | Invasive Species
A Sunday morning drive along Center Point’s River Road ain’t what it used to be.
The drive from east to west still begins beneath the stunningly beautiful canopy of old pecans, oaks, elm and cypress. The undergrowth opens up in a few places to give the driver a few peeks at the Guadalupe River—just teasers leaving you wishing for more. Trouble is, the bigger view opening up on the other side of the road is a quarry neighbor’s nightmare. Thistles, thistles, thistles. Everywhere, musk thistles.
And what have our neighbors, the gravel quarries, done to stop the explosive proliferation of these awful weeds?
Martin Marietta Aggregates has made no attempt to control thistle growth on their property that adjoins River Road and Sutherland Lane. White seeds are drifting in the wind to all parts of the county. And beyond.
Drymala Quarry seems to be mounting a late poisoning of their thistle forest on Sutherland Road. Probably a high-powered chemical since Roundup® won’t kill thistles that are that tall. This quarry neighbor guesses they have a license to purchase those potent, federally regulated chemicals in large quantities, since Drymala obviously used a lot of whatever noxious chemical it is.
Do the quarries’ neighbors have a right to know what chemical compound Drymala has sprayed?
The runoff from whatever they are, those herbicides or herbicide, seeps directly into the river and is undoubtedly detrimental to the downstream neighbors as well as to fish and to river plants.
Could there have been some drift onto neighbor’s property or onto the roadway as they sprayed…?
Let us return to our tour.
Take a turn back onto River Road and you see the backside of Drymala’s quarry.
Oh, no!
While county crews have mowed their side of the fence, the right-of-way, the quarry’s neglect presents a stark contrast.
Musk thistles run amuck on this part of Drymala land.
A monumental travesty will undoubtedly unfold next spring. These thistle seeds are already drifting across River Road. They drift, spreading hundreds of thousands of seeds, each one eager to bloom into a tall stalk of sharp thorns. Thorns that injure livestock and wildlife, while ruining the land, be it recreational, agricultural, or residential.
I see the wedge of ground that has been scrapped and gouged into an ATV-motocross facility. All the vegetation has been removed from the surface, leaving bare dirt. Prime river bottom dirt.
Can a thistle seed ask for more?
I know there is relief ahead. I am almost to TEXAS MONTHLY Magazine’s #3 swimming hole in Texas, the Brinks-Reese-Guadalupe crossing. But there’s no relief for me. This popular recreational spot, a haven for man since the days of the Native Americans, has not been spared. Musk-thistle seeds have made their way to the riverbank.
Thankfully, those weeds have not germinated in huge numbers. Not yet. Were they seeded from the unattended quarry berms a few feet above the river?
A return to Highway 27 is encouraging. Martin Marietta has removed thistles along this heavily traveled roadway. Well, maybe not so encouraging. Neighbors wonder why this international corporation controls the musk thistle at their high profile front fence that runs alongside the highway, but ignores the infestation beyond the view of Highway 27 motorists.
Then there is Wheatcraft, situated on the river bank.
Neighbors suspected the berms along Highway 27 were strategically located to hide the dismal reality inside the pits. These berms have now become a seedbed for the musk thistle. Wheatcraft Materials Incorporated has also made a sloppy attempt at control with herbicides.
Do neighbors have a right to expect more appropriate thistle control, given the high risk of chemicals soaking into the soil, the river’s alluvial system and the main river stream?
Quarry neighbors also suffer from unattended quarry thistles, and nearby farmers and ranchers lose the productivity of their land, since these weeds aren’t suitable as agricultural feed and they are sharp and tall, poising injury to livestock and wildlife.
Removal is impossible with the annual seeding from the quarries as well as the seed bank lying dormant from previous years. Any method of control is labor intensive, time consuming, expensive and frustrating. Neighbors can attempt to pop a few out of the ground but this is impossible when faced with a blooming bumper crop. Do we spray and kill everything in site? Do we mow and destroy the wildflower seed bank forever? Unfortunately, the musk thistle blooms and seeds in sync with our native wildflowers.
The quarries are not operating on this Sunday but thistle seeds are still blowing in the wind, soon to land and germinate.
Wouldn’t it all be better, if gravel quarry owners would simply make concerted efforts to control thistles on their property, before they morph from seeds to weeds?
~Frances Lovett
The drive from east to west still begins beneath the stunningly beautiful canopy of old pecans, oaks, elm and cypress. The undergrowth opens up in a few places to give the driver a few peeks at the Guadalupe River—just teasers leaving you wishing for more. Trouble is, the bigger view opening up on the other side of the road is a quarry neighbor’s nightmare. Thistles, thistles, thistles. Everywhere, musk thistles.
And what have our neighbors, the gravel quarries, done to stop the explosive proliferation of these awful weeds?
Martin Marietta Aggregates has made no attempt to control thistle growth on their property that adjoins River Road and Sutherland Lane. White seeds are drifting in the wind to all parts of the county. And beyond.
Drymala Quarry seems to be mounting a late poisoning of their thistle forest on Sutherland Road. Probably a high-powered chemical since Roundup® won’t kill thistles that are that tall. This quarry neighbor guesses they have a license to purchase those potent, federally regulated chemicals in large quantities, since Drymala obviously used a lot of whatever noxious chemical it is.
Do the quarries’ neighbors have a right to know what chemical compound Drymala has sprayed?
The runoff from whatever they are, those herbicides or herbicide, seeps directly into the river and is undoubtedly detrimental to the downstream neighbors as well as to fish and to river plants.
Could there have been some drift onto neighbor’s property or onto the roadway as they sprayed…?
Let us return to our tour.
Take a turn back onto River Road and you see the backside of Drymala’s quarry.
Oh, no!
While county crews have mowed their side of the fence, the right-of-way, the quarry’s neglect presents a stark contrast.
Musk thistles run amuck on this part of Drymala land.
A monumental travesty will undoubtedly unfold next spring. These thistle seeds are already drifting across River Road. They drift, spreading hundreds of thousands of seeds, each one eager to bloom into a tall stalk of sharp thorns. Thorns that injure livestock and wildlife, while ruining the land, be it recreational, agricultural, or residential.
I see the wedge of ground that has been scrapped and gouged into an ATV-motocross facility. All the vegetation has been removed from the surface, leaving bare dirt. Prime river bottom dirt.
Can a thistle seed ask for more?
I know there is relief ahead. I am almost to TEXAS MONTHLY Magazine’s #3 swimming hole in Texas, the Brinks-Reese-Guadalupe crossing. But there’s no relief for me. This popular recreational spot, a haven for man since the days of the Native Americans, has not been spared. Musk-thistle seeds have made their way to the riverbank.
Thankfully, those weeds have not germinated in huge numbers. Not yet. Were they seeded from the unattended quarry berms a few feet above the river?
A return to Highway 27 is encouraging. Martin Marietta has removed thistles along this heavily traveled roadway. Well, maybe not so encouraging. Neighbors wonder why this international corporation controls the musk thistle at their high profile front fence that runs alongside the highway, but ignores the infestation beyond the view of Highway 27 motorists.
Then there is Wheatcraft, situated on the river bank.
Neighbors suspected the berms along Highway 27 were strategically located to hide the dismal reality inside the pits. These berms have now become a seedbed for the musk thistle. Wheatcraft Materials Incorporated has also made a sloppy attempt at control with herbicides.
Do neighbors have a right to expect more appropriate thistle control, given the high risk of chemicals soaking into the soil, the river’s alluvial system and the main river stream?
Quarry neighbors also suffer from unattended quarry thistles, and nearby farmers and ranchers lose the productivity of their land, since these weeds aren’t suitable as agricultural feed and they are sharp and tall, poising injury to livestock and wildlife.
Removal is impossible with the annual seeding from the quarries as well as the seed bank lying dormant from previous years. Any method of control is labor intensive, time consuming, expensive and frustrating. Neighbors can attempt to pop a few out of the ground but this is impossible when faced with a blooming bumper crop. Do we spray and kill everything in site? Do we mow and destroy the wildflower seed bank forever? Unfortunately, the musk thistle blooms and seeds in sync with our native wildflowers.
The quarries are not operating on this Sunday but thistle seeds are still blowing in the wind, soon to land and germinate.
Wouldn’t it all be better, if gravel quarry owners would simply make concerted efforts to control thistles on their property, before they morph from seeds to weeds?
~Frances Lovett
Do quarry neighbors have rights?
20/05/10 21:11 Filed in: Quarries
Our recent rains have been great, but KCC folks have been in the county a goodly many years, and we know that with summer upon us, the dust and noise from our neighboring quarries will soon pick up again.
There’s nothing we can do about it.
As our county officials support the industrialization of the Highway 27 corridor, and while all that dust and noise billows up from the quarry properties, mine owners are allowed to do whatever they choose. They are big business. I’m just a private landowner.
Over here on my property, I breathe nasty air, and I can’t even enjoy a peaceful evening, relaxing in my own home, much less by the river, not with the quarries pounding away, day and night, night and day.
At a town hall meeting in New Braunfels, over in Comal County, I heard a Martin Marietta lobbyist boldly state that their company adheres to all state laws. Yet some Comal County residents had unanswered complaints about broken windows, cracked foundations and caved-in wells from blasting at the neighboring Martin Marietta mine.
In actuality, there are no Texas state laws regulating quarry operations.
Also, that lobbyist failed to inform the audience that he and other powerful quarry lobbyists had successfully defeated a modest regulatory bill previously introduced by Texas State Senator Troy Fraser. The only piece of the bill to survive was a clause stating that all gravel loads on a public road must be covered.
Texas does have laws specific to air quality which govern emissions from any industrial operation. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) applies these laws to quarry operations in an effort to control emissions of particulates and dust into the air. A drive down Highway 27 from Kerrville to Comfort will verify the absence of enforcement as the ground dries out and summer operations crank up.
Dust billows from the pits and on-site roads. White dirt builds up on the highway at the pit entrances. Quarry neighbors ought to be able to expect a few neighborly courtesies from the pit owners.
All this particular landowner is asking for is a sensible, decent, and neighborly approach to their business model. This would include...
Our elected officials should report to water authorities, such as the TCEQ and HGCD, the amount of river- and well water that is being used to facilitate mining, gravel-washing processes and dust control.
We also need an objective assessment by those officials on the short term tax gain vs. the long term loss of land productivity, river tourism and road repairs caused by heavy truck traffic. They should regularly monitor the particulate matter that is emitted into the air from the cluster of five quarries within our small area.
Finally, we need law enforcement and protection from the speeding trucks and flying gravel.
I think we need a Quarry Neighbor’s Bill of Rights. That might get someone interested in our plight. But the rain today is so nice. I could just sit here and look at the dust on my shelves, at the pictures of my loved ones and at my precious knickknacks. Why not look outside and enjoy the beautiful Hill Country? Because just across the fence, I can see what the miners are doing to these beautiful hills…and it’s the pits!
Frances Lovett
There’s nothing we can do about it.
As our county officials support the industrialization of the Highway 27 corridor, and while all that dust and noise billows up from the quarry properties, mine owners are allowed to do whatever they choose. They are big business. I’m just a private landowner.
Over here on my property, I breathe nasty air, and I can’t even enjoy a peaceful evening, relaxing in my own home, much less by the river, not with the quarries pounding away, day and night, night and day.
At a town hall meeting in New Braunfels, over in Comal County, I heard a Martin Marietta lobbyist boldly state that their company adheres to all state laws. Yet some Comal County residents had unanswered complaints about broken windows, cracked foundations and caved-in wells from blasting at the neighboring Martin Marietta mine.
In actuality, there are no Texas state laws regulating quarry operations.
Also, that lobbyist failed to inform the audience that he and other powerful quarry lobbyists had successfully defeated a modest regulatory bill previously introduced by Texas State Senator Troy Fraser. The only piece of the bill to survive was a clause stating that all gravel loads on a public road must be covered.
Texas does have laws specific to air quality which govern emissions from any industrial operation. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) applies these laws to quarry operations in an effort to control emissions of particulates and dust into the air. A drive down Highway 27 from Kerrville to Comfort will verify the absence of enforcement as the ground dries out and summer operations crank up.
Dust billows from the pits and on-site roads. White dirt builds up on the highway at the pit entrances. Quarry neighbors ought to be able to expect a few neighborly courtesies from the pit owners.
All this particular landowner is asking for is a sensible, decent, and neighborly approach to their business model. This would include...
- reasonable hours of operation,
- noise control,
- dust control from the mining operations and on-site roads,
- reasonable protection of the river, river bottom and floodplain; and,
- remediation when the mines are depleted.
Our elected officials should report to water authorities, such as the TCEQ and HGCD, the amount of river- and well water that is being used to facilitate mining, gravel-washing processes and dust control.
We also need an objective assessment by those officials on the short term tax gain vs. the long term loss of land productivity, river tourism and road repairs caused by heavy truck traffic. They should regularly monitor the particulate matter that is emitted into the air from the cluster of five quarries within our small area.
Finally, we need law enforcement and protection from the speeding trucks and flying gravel.
I think we need a Quarry Neighbor’s Bill of Rights. That might get someone interested in our plight. But the rain today is so nice. I could just sit here and look at the dust on my shelves, at the pictures of my loved ones and at my precious knickknacks. Why not look outside and enjoy the beautiful Hill Country? Because just across the fence, I can see what the miners are doing to these beautiful hills…and it’s the pits!
Frances Lovett