Murky waters and politics

While the Edwards Aquifer Authority has long been managing the quantity of water to be pumped from lands under its jurisdiction, the question of the quality of water remains unanswered and will likely become a major issue of concern in years to come.

Because the Edwards Aquifer is recharged through caves and large openings that lead directly into the subsurface of the aquifer any pollutants, sediments and toxins in recharge flow can quickly end up in the springs flow. Low water quality would effect human users, but could also devastate fragile ecosystems supported by the flow from the aquifer.

There had long been a connection established between fast development and local water quality. For example, construction areas create large plots of disturbed, loose soil. Texas is known for its unpredictable weather events. When it rains in Texas, it pours. These big rain events can carry a lot of soil sediments into the aquifer.

Image courtesy of the Edwards Aquifer Website

Once the construction is over, there is usually more impervious surface created over the recharge zone. Buildings, roads and parking lots take up precious areas of land where water could percolate down into the ground. These surfaces also collect oils, grease and other urban contaminants, that are taken up by rain water and eventually carried underground. Larger areas of impervious surface also create larger storm flows, which increase the risk of flooding and cause more erosion in creek banks and slopes.

While the Edwards Aquifer provides some filtration due to the porous structure of its limestone, little is known about the true extent of its capabilities to filter. It is likely that the aquifer could filter out large particles like sediment, but could do very little for chemical toxins and pollutants. The biological structure of the aquifer and the action of microbiological communities in filtering groundwater is not well studied. And while no major toxic spill events have occurred in the area to this day, it could just be a tragedy waiting to happen.

A solution to low quality of groundwater could be building water processing plants, but unlike surface water that in Texas is processed in very large water facilities and from there delivered to customers, groundwater sources are not concentrated. For example, the city of San Antonio that relied on the Edwards Aquifer for most of its water has many small wells, which pump and deliver water to local communities. So if it was necessary to process all the water from the aquifer many small processing plants would have to be built, which may not be economical.

Another, more reasonable and therefore more difficult solution would be to begin regulating development in the Recharge and Contributing Zones of the aquifer. But there are obstacles to overcome. One is a cultural one - Texans like and respect their private property and regulation of development could be a difficult idea to convince citizens. The second obstacle is powerful development interests. Texas has been trying to bring in large industries by creating incentives and currently has some of the fastest growing cities in the country. This movement is not likely to not likely to slow down any time soon. But so far, there has only been push-back from communities and cities on a case-by-case basis.

Texas will soon have to find a balance between respecting private property, yet still protecting a resource that ultimately belongs to everyone, even if it is not so on paper. Without water quality regulation and growing populations and development it could only be time before a serious spill or event will cause a serious drop in water quality in the aquifer. If that were to happen today there would be no responsible authority to mitigate the effects.