Representatives of The Texas Tribune and Texas State partnered to bring water experts and officials to a series of panels to discuss concerns. The event entitled A Symposium on Water was presented by The Texas Tribune’s Festival on the Road series.
“The problem is our cities are in the mindset that they’re in the business of selling water, not saving water,” said Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner, during ‘Life After Proposition 6,’ the first panel. Proposition 6 is a constitutional amendment that created the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (S.W.I.F.T.).
People see Texas as a place to come and succeed, Miller said. State officials need to utilize the water available while continuing to search for new sources.
Carlos Rubinstein, chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, shared Miller’s logic but urged discharging back into springs and aquifers.
“Part of meeting our needs in the future is conserving water where we can,” Rubinstein said.
The discussion of conservation developed further in the next panel, ‘The Battle Over Groundwater.’
A plan by Houston-based company Electro Purification to pump water from the Trinity Aquifer and resell to Austin suburbs prompted state regulation regarding groundwater use.
Electro Purification officials do not adhere to the regulation of state or county groundwater districts because of an overlap of the Trinity and Edwards Aquifers.
State Representative Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) said groundwater districts must be drawn geologically rather than by political boundaries. By law, groundwater is subject to the rule of capture, allowing a system of fair share among users. Isaac said the fair share system is “convoluted.”
Water conservation efforts have room for improvement, said Ken Kramer, former director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Kramer was one of the water experts on the panel addressing the question of ‘How Much More Can We Conserve?’
Kramer said Texas has experienced an increase in economic development despite the recent recession. State officials are losing an opportunity to implement water regulations in new buildings, setting a precedent for future developments.
Most big Texas cities cannot be sustained with nearby water sources, said Laura Huffman, director of the Nature Conservancy of Texas.
“What we have is what we have,” Huffman said. “No one is making more water.”
Huffman called for a shift in mindset regarding water conservation. She urged the public to consider demand as well as protect the resource.
The final panel addressed the question of ‘Why Water Along the Border is Undrinkable.’ Experts and officials brought forth a new set of issues regarding water quality and availability along border communities.
Wendy Jepson, associate professor of geography at Texas A&M University, said there is a “gap in knowledge” about the water issues plaguing border communities and colonias, or unregulated settlements.
“This is not a border phenomenon,” Jepson said. “This is a water supply problem that is statewide.”
Jepson said collaboration between city and state governments is essential to increase the demand for water supply and quality in border communities.
Water corporations are not required by law to translate all of their provisions to Spanish, Jepson said. Eighty percent of residents along the border get their water from vending machines.
The use of water vending machines results in a high rate of contamination, Jepson said. Citizens transport the water from the machines to their homes without guidance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
“Water is a human right,” Jepson said. “Everyone should have access to safe and drinkable water, and we must have water security.
Alexa Tavarez is a reporter for the University Star where this story originally published. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and Corridor News.