Vista Ridge: Don't California Our Water!
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Update -- December 23, 2020
The Post Oak District (Burleson-Milam counties) permitted the infamous Vista Ridge Project to pump 50,000 ac-ft/year through a 54-60", 142-mile pipeline to San Antonio from eighteen deep wells in Burleson County.
The well field for Vista Ridge is a stone's throw from Lee County, yet neither groundwater district did anything to warn Lee County well owners of their peril.
The Post Oak District's own Burleson County landowners are suffering the same effects, but the Post Oak District has a well mitigation plan --- currently, they are telling well drillers who help recover damaged wells to drop affected well pumps 200 feet. Clearly, they know more drops in water levels are yet to come.
The Vista Ridge project is intended to last for at least thirty years, before San Antonio takes over ownership of the project --- that City's utility has stated they plan to pump another thirty years after that. THIS PROJECT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE, it has never been sustainable.
Vista Ridge is already drying up wells in northeastern Lee County after only nine months of pumping!
The permits in the Lost Pines District have had years to find customers for their speculative projects to pump and export a combined 74,500 ac-ft/year, and yet they have not signed anyone up. Despite their failure, they expect the Lost Pines District to keep them alive.
The San Antonio Water System did not need the Vista Ridge water for decades, yet they obligated their ratepayers to pay for it because developers and other special interests who thrive on growth demanded it. We are concerned that another 74,500 ac-ft/year could find similar shortsighted municipalities and vulnerable ratepayers for the Lost Pines projects ---- and who will suffer first from all these plans?
The best available science tells us that, first, our rivers, streams and springs will suffer from a reduction of the freshwater feed from groundwater that is being sucked elsewhere, and then, or at virtually the same time, our household and livestock wells will be affected.
Guess what! Our wells are already being affected, from Vista Ridge alone.
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