by Annalisa Peace, Executive Director, GEAA
Dear GEAA members and friends,
I can’t tell you how pleased I was this morning to join the citizens of Comal County in giving a standing ovation to Judge Krause and the Comal County Commissioners for unanimously voting to deny the Meyers Ranch Water Quality Improvement District. If approved, this WCID would have paved the way for putting 1,500 houses on 700 acres in an unincorporated and sparsely populated area of Comal County – on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone right at the headwaters of the Comal River. We regard working with the Friends of Dry Comal Creek to organize opposition to this ill-advised project both a pleasure and a privilege.
I recall much different results from our efforts in the past, as when GEAA joined with the Cibolo Creek Conservation Society to petition the Bexar County Commissioners to deny plans for the overcrowded Wortham Oaks subdivision over the Recharge Zone. We all owe our thanks to the Comal County Commissioners Court for governing this beautiful area with an eye toward sustaining the Edwards Aquifer and Comal Springs.
Earlier this week we got the good news that the State Office of Administrative Hearings had ruled to deny an amendment to the Johnson Ranch water quality permit which would have allowed the developers to take land from the neighboring ranch of the Lux and Graham families to dump sewage effluent from the subdivision. Read more here.
That is so much good news already this week, and it is only Wednesday! I am actually looking forward to the rest of this week and hoping for more good news (perhaps in our mail box!).
We are heartened to think that these victories portend a change in thinking about the highest and best uses of land on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. There are many more plans in the works for high density development on the lands that supply fresh water to our wells, springs and rivers. GEAA will be working with the impacted communities to gain recognition for how precious – and worthy of protection – are these undeveloped lands of the Hill Country. We hope you will all be with us on this. As we have seen this week, it does make a difference.
Thank you and…Yea!
Annalisa Peace, Executive Director
www.AquiferAlliance.org
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and, you can donate to GEAA on line or mail contributions to support GEAA to PO Box 15618, San Antonio, Texas 78212