:etter To The Editor: Where Does San Marcos Get 93 Percent Of It’s Water?

Letter to the Editor,

Answer: Lake Dunlap

All our opinions should be based on accurate information. We all want our Spring Lake and our San Marcos River to be clean and preserved, but misinformation or withheld information has been used to form many opinions about water. Therefore, for those who read this editorial, I ask you to read with an open mind to the truth of the following facts.

1. 93% of our water comes from Lake Dunlap (a lake in the Canyon Lake system) not the San Marcos River. We have ground water or surface water piped in from Lake Dunlap.
2. San Marcos is the only city in Texas and maybe in the entire United States, which decides its water restriction stages based on a water source, which is not the primary water source.
3. Our water source, Lake Dunlap, has water restrictions determined by the GBRA (Guadalupe Blanco River Authority). They are in Stage 4, but their Stage 4 is less restrictive than our Stage 2. GBRA’s Stage 4 allows watering once per week and on that day you can water within a 14-hour timeframe. Our Stages of water restriction should be based on our main source of water like the rest of Texas.
4. Citizens pay for 10,000-acre feet of water from Lake Dunlap. We only use 6850-acre feet. It is a “use it or lose it” deal. San Marcos citizens pay for it and then are restricted so we cannot use it, so we lose the unused water every year.
5. Our Water Department has an operations budget. Therefore, when citizens are restricted from using all the water that we as citizens own, there is not enough income to support the department operations. Therefore, water restrictions cause departmental income losses and therefore force rate increases.
6. San Marcos provides cars and personnel to drive the city looking for violators and to spy on its citizens. This does not provide for a good feeling within our community…it only generates fear and dislike for the city we live in.

Based on these facts, I recommend:

The City of San Marcos and our City Council, need to adopt the same water restrictions based upon the GBRA guidelines, who governs our main source of water (Lake Dunlap), or as an alternative, the City of San Marcos and City Council could adopt similar, but less restrictive guidelines then the standards we are currently having to abide by.

Lisa Spencer, San Marcos Resident