Jacob's Well Natural Area is suffering from the current drought.
Photo Courtesy of Katherine Sturdivant
MySA
By Steven Santana
Updated
A groundwater conservation group for Hays County says that an area utility company put popular swimming spot Jacob's Well in danger by ignoring pumping limits. A notice of violation from Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation
District (HTGCD) says Aqua Texas pumped nearly double the amount of water the company is permitted from the Trinity Aquifer, which feeds into Jacob's Well.
HTGCD fined Aqua Texas $448,710 in the spring for going over the pumping limits. Charlie Flatten, general manager of the HTGCD, told Austin's public radio station KUT that it is the biggest fine the organization has ever issued. He added that pumping over the limit is partially the reason that the Jacob's Well levels dropped.
The popular spot that is frequented by swimmers closed twice this year due to low water levels. The Hays County Parks Department said in April that it was closing Jacob's Well for the "foreseeable future" as it continued to struggle amid an ongoing drought.
"It’s pretty habitual,” Flatten told KUT. "But this is a special circumstance caused by the most severe drought that we’ve had since the '50s."
David Baker, executive director of the nonprofit The Watershed Association, told KUT that Jacob's Well has lost "thousands of dollars in revenue" from closing the area to swimmers over the past two summers.
"It’s really unacceptable to just sort of ignore the guidelines that the groundwater district has set up,” Baker told KUT. "To not comply with those rules, we think contributed to the situation we’re in now significantly."