July 2006

July 23, 2006 00:49 - Preserve Our Water Announces Incorporation and First Action

( Press Release May 22, 2006)On May 1st, Preserve Our Water, Inc. (POW) received recognition from the Secretary of State as a not-for-profit corporation in Texas. This organization is composed of Blanco County citizens deeply concerned about preservation of... (Read Article)

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

July 23, 2006 00:56 - Preserve Our Water Files Open Meeting Complaint

(Press Statement June 15, 2006)The Blanco County citizen’s organization, Preserve Our Water, Inc., announced that it has filed an Open Meeting complaint against the Blanco Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District in Blanco County District Court. General... (Read Article)

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

July 23, 2006 01:04 - Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District to Revise Its Rules

In 2005, the Texas legislature made several important changes to the laws regulating Groundwater Conservation Districts like the one in Blanco County. The District is currently in the process of considering many important changes to their Operating Rules, in part to bring the District into compliance with the law that took effect
on Sept. 1, 2005.

The proposed changes are expected to be available for public review by Monday, July 24th. The District General Manager says that the rules will be posted on the District web site where it be read or downloaded, available to read or copy at the District office, or on a CD, also at the office.

The District web site is: http://www.blancocountygroundwater.org/

The District office is located at: 601 W. Main, Johnson City, TX

The next major step in the process is a Public Hearing at which all citizens of Blanco County are free to voice their views about the proposed changes.

Rule Revision Public Hearing

Aug. 15th

7:00 PM

Location TBA

Written Comments due August 9th.

For more information, please contact Preserve Our Water (868-9055) or the Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District (830-868-9196).

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

July 24, 2006 16:56 - Proposed Changes for BPGCD Rules

Here are the proposed ammendments to the Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District RULES:

http://www.blancocountygroundwater.org/public-notices/RULES_AMEND_ROPOSAL_072106.pdf

The proposed changes are in red, so they're east to spot.

It's in PDF format, so you'll need Adobe Reader to open it. If you don't have a PDF reader, download one free at

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

July 26, 2006 10:35 - Blanco County Groundwater Resources are Under Attack!

Will you come to the defense?

Preserve Our Water, Inc. formed after the March 16th Public Hearing held by the
Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District. That hearing was held to
consider a water production permit for the developers of the Rockin' J. At that
meeting many citizens voiced concerns about a permit to produce 185,000,000 gallons
of water per year - the largest permit ever considered by the District. When the
District's Board voted to grant the permit, after almost 3 hours of informed and
well presented arguments and concerns by citizens, it became clear to many that a
different approach was required to defend our water resources. Unfortunately, our
District had clearly demonstrated itself incapable of, or unwilling to, provide that
defense.

Since incorporating on May 1st, POW has been busy. Working from a philosophy that
negotiation and informed discussion is superior to conflict, POW has taken several
steps over the past 3 months to attempt to address the problem we all face.

Request for "Findings and Conclusions" - POW first asked the Board to produce a
statement of the basis for their decision in granting the permit; as specified by
Texas law. The Board refused.

Motion for Rehearing - on May 17th POW submitted a document to the Board specifying
10 errors committed in issuing the permit, 8 of those errors being actions contrary
to Texas law. The Board has not made any response to this administrative Motion for
a new permit hearing.

Open Meeting Law violation - finally, facing continued inaction by the District, on
June 13th POW filed suit in Blanco District Court, asking the court to set aside the
permit due to an illegally conducted Executive Session in the course of the Public
Hearing. The District has responded, as required by Court procedures, claiming no
such Session occurred.

Rule Revision Process - in the course of examining the District's current rules it
became clear they had not been updated to reflect numerous important changes in the
law regulating Groundwater Districts. In May the District announced it had retained
an attorney to help revise the rules. POW received a copy of the proposed changes
and discovered that the District intends, among other things, to:

· restrict citizen access to the decision making process,

· transfer decision making authority from the Board to an employee, and

· weaken its ability to conserve our Groundwater resource.

POW plans to use all resources available to block these serious steps away from the
kind of District the citizens of Blanco County voted to establish. The Proposed
Rules will be available to the public beginning July 24th. Written comments to the
District are due by Aug. 9th. The Public Hearing is scheduled for August 15th at
7:15 PM. No location has yet been announced.

POW will fight as long and as hard to defend our water as the citizens of the county
and surrounding areas are prepared to support. Unfortunately, informed argument and
persuasion has proven inadequate and the tools we must resort to - our legal
protections - are expensive. The best way for citizens to indicate their desire to
see our water resources protected is by helping fund those legal efforts. If you can
contribute to our work, that contribution, of any size, will be a critical vote in
favor of continuing the defense of our most critical resource.

Please send your contributions to:

Preserve Our Water, Inc.
P. O. Box 946
Blanco, TX 78606

POW has filed with the IRS for tax exempt status and we expect a favorable decision soon.

For more information and the current status of POW efforts, or for an update on
water use at the Rockin' J, please contact either:

Dave Collins, President
830-868-9055

or
Lynne McKirdy, VicePresident
830-833-9951

Or use "Contact POW" link (upper left of this page) to email.

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)