EUWCD board discusses retention pond breach; need to study sand minesFree Access




Retention pond breaches and the need to regulate sand mine facilities topped the list of topics discussed at the Nov. 30 meeting of the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District Board of Directors meeting.

Janice Jones, who lives in Jourdanton and has property on Mangum Road, was the first to speak. She spoke on the retention pond breach at Martin Marietta and Preferred Sands, that happened between Oct. 14-19.

After being unable to get across the road, she noticed red, ugly water, which she said is not what floods normally. She shared photos to the board members and on Nov. 8, there was still a lot of water there.

“Two days later, we got 2.4 inches of rain. I went out there because my neighbor Mrs. Miller called me and said it is flooding again. We’ve had the property since 2012 and 2.4 inches of rain does not cause flooding,” said Jones.

She also spoke on a helicopter video she saw (available on the Facebook page “Not Just Dust- Bruce Rd.”) that shows the red water in the area she spoke of.

“It is wastewater, as far as I’m concerned. It is contaminating my land,” Jones said.

She expressed concern about her neighbor who found a dead deer in her tank. The whole deer was checked and had not been shot. Her neighbor has pedigree Longhorn steers and Pedigree horses.
“It can affect the quality of my life on the well. We have two Carrizo Wells on our property. They are not deep. They are like 400 ft. and I’m wondering, how many other animals are going to end up dying, because this water has flocculants and  this is wastewater on my property,” Jones said.
She loves the property, but in all the 12 years that they have had it, they have only had a little bit of water on the road, and that is when it rained about 8 inches. She added that back then it was also not red water.
“This stream of water that comes down other dry creek ends goes all the way back and shows the breach in the helicopter from Martin Marietta and Preferred Sands. This is of great concern to me, because this was our place to retire. I don’t even know if it’s healthy to live in anymore. That is what I have to speak to you about. It is something I had concerns of from the very beginning, before these mines had the permits and now my worst nightmare has come true,” added Jones.
Next to speak was Russell Wilson, president of Not Just Dust.
“Here we are 20 months later and now we are talking about Black Sands moving in, which is the new kid on the block. Since the first time we talked, the operators of processing plants and frac sand mining facilities in this area have multiplied,” said Wilson.
He read a list of 16 such facilities now in Atascosa County and parts of Bexar County.
“That’s 16 facilities coming in to our area, working in and around our recharge zone. Basically we want to know what we can do to monitor what is going on, what is happening with the recharge zone, what happens with the cumulative effect of 16 facilities in close proximity, stripping off the top, and mining on top of the recharge zone,” Wilson said.
A facility down south has one mine moving into their area and they are doing a study to see what the effects of mining are in their area. Wilson suggested it might be prudent to take a look at that.
“We think it’s so prudent, that we are working with our state legislators right now and we are in discussions with them on trying to get legislation in place on reclaiming these areas,” Wilson said.
In Brady, there are three facilities shutting down and they are going to leave big pits, wide open because right now nothing is monitored or regulated or reclaimed on these mines, noted Wilson.
“With the proximity of this many, in and around the recharge zone, I think we need to take a look at that.”
“We’ve told you time and time again, we’re not against the oil industry. We like the oil industry. We also mentioned the first time we were coming here, that when one comes, more comes and now we’ve got 16. So I would hope that you guys would consider and take a look at what we can do to at least take a look at what the effect is going to be on our resources here in this area because we don’t want any adverse effect to the aquifer and to the area,” Wilson said.
Jessica Hardy also spoke during Public Comments and read the definition of waste, as defined by EUWCD. She said in October, what fits this definition occurred, when two mines’ retention ponds were breached.
“We have video footage that we took from the helicopter and the amount of water is astounding, that escaped these mines. This is waste polluting streams and tearing up roads along this way. This constitutes waste according to your rules that I just read. We would like Evergreen to stand by its rules, address this situation to the best of their ability. Per rule No. 52, I would like to ask that Not Just Dust be acknowledged as an affected party, along with members of the community that were affected and pursue this rule for a hearing to hopefully help avoid this waste from happening again,” Hardy said.
Later in the meeting was status of the Peeler Ranch and the San Miguel Electric Cooperative in southern Atascosa County. Attorney Monique Norman said the attorney involved said she may come to a different board meeting to discuss it.
The board moved on to the other agenda items however, towards the end of the meeting, Director Jason Peeler asked to go back to staff reports.
“I want a chance later to expand on the problems we are having with San Miguel, but it’s going to parley really well in this conversation with Jessica and Mr. Wilson. We need to figure out where the Evergreen’s job is, or what our job description is for managing recharge zones. It’s not groundwater yet, when it’s coming out of the sky, but it is soon to be. I guess I am asking a lawyer question.”
Peeler said he will have a chance to prove the industry went unchecked 30 years ago. He added if you add on the list of sand mines in Wilson County, there are about 20. Peeler described the cycle of the industry, that comes with supply and demand.
“Somebody goes broke and somebody buys them and eventually you’ve got two or three layers of ownership. Nobody cares. Somebody’s changing their oil in the bottom of the sand pit… who knows, but it is a direct shock into the aquifer. I’m sure it can be managed where it is fine and safe, but if Not Just Dust is already going to Austin, is it our job to have some sort of oversight equally spread out amongst 20 frac sand guys, ensuring… I am asking the lawyer question. I’m struggling. I know the dangers of this. I want to protect landowner rights. I want to protect industry, all of it, but if everybody doesn’t have the same rules, if someone’s not watching, I am 100 percent sure somewhere, bad things are going to happen,” said Peeler, followed by the audience applauding.
Director Jay Troell said he wanted to add an agenda item for the next meeting.
“I think we ought to have either a discussion with Ed Walker about what they are doing there with their study. We ought to put it on our agenda item, something about a study on the effect of these concentrated sand mining areas on our aquifers. I say if Wintergarden has got a study in process, maybe we can build on that somehow.”
Peeler said, “The problem is, when the damage is done, you can’t undo it. Is it our jurisdiction?”
Attorney Norman said they with the way laws are written, they have very limited jurisdiction.
“It says that we have water quality and it says it one time and it doesn’t mention it any other time in 36. Any time another district in Guadalupe County tried to use that for a landfill and they used the water quality, it got overruled in court and it was more of a land use issue and not a water quality. I understand where you’re coming from. I’m empathetic for water quality, I’m just talking about the legal issues. TCEQ has the primary jurisdiction over it, which I know that is not a perfect scenario. So does there probably need to be additional legislation even for us to do that? Maybe so. I don’t think we have the authority to do that, really,” Norman said.
Peeler said that TCEQ and the Railroad Commission failed miserably.
“So what happened years ago, San Miguel’s Railroad Commission said, ‘Tell us what you want your rules to be, and we’ll make sure you follow them.’ I’m sure today the gentleman with the frac sand company thinks he’s doing everything right. But we may 30 years from now figure out that we didn’t do enough testing, enough studying. We really didn’t get ahead of this deal. And I’m not against frac sand, mark me down as pro-business, pro-property rights, but if we don’t somehow or another figure out how to get in front of it, it looks like the industry will.”
Russell Wilson said, “That is our point exactly. It happened in Wisconsin where the frac sand industry moved very quickly and we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’ve engaged some of these frac sand mining companies and we’ve gotten some of their in-place procedures, what they use in Wisconsin for reclaim, etc. and we’ve sent that to our legislators. We’re having conversations with legislation that is being drafted right now. We’re trying to engage the frac sand industry itself to come to the table with us, so we can have that discussion and come up with a workable solution for the industry and the community, that lives with their mining so something can be done to protect the aquifer and protect the citizens of the area. That is our starting point right now. Hopefully some of these guys will come together with us, and we’d like your support as well as we move forward with this with our legislature and try to get something workable put in place for the concentration of the mines, the reclaim of the mines, the protection of the aquifer over the recharge zone,” said Wilson.
Peeler said, “With TCEQ and the Railroad Commission from what I’ve learned on the administrative level, it’s not black and white. There are a lot of things- they have a lot of leniency on which way they can go and what they can do, just the laws we have for them and the way it works.”
“But there are no studies on any of this,” said Jessica Hardy.
Attorney Norman spoke on lobbyists and said, “You poke the bear in that industry and all of a sudden, now they are after us and they are cutting back everything else we do. So it’s not only that we don’t get that thing passed in that new authority, but now they think we have too much authority, which they are already trying to do and they’re cutting back on everything else we can do, because they don’t want us to regulate.”
Jessica Hardy said, “Wouldn’t it serve the interest for you all to do more of these studies, to prove either way, that there could be a problem or not a problem? That would give you teeth to go for some legislation to protect the community.”
“It absolutely would. My question is, can we? What can we do?” asked Peeler.
“We won’t know unless we try,” said Hardy.
More discussion ensued about the district monitoring wells on a regular basis for level changes and water quality, and acting as a red flag.
Peeler ended by saying how do they continue this conversation. They have a chance to get ahead of this industry, or maybe work with the industry, to prevent contamination.
“I know the frac sand industry doesn’t want to see themselves get in trouble. It’s not necessarily our jurisdiction, but we can be of some help. When this meeting is over, how do you go forward from there?” asked Peeler.
Hardy said up until this last incident with the wastewater, they have had really good rapport with the sand mines. They had not had a chance to talk with Black Mountain yet, but they have had sit down meetings with other companies.
“It worked, but with this wastewater issue, it is a totally different incident because we had to get TCEQ involved, but on a lot of other issues that were affecting us, they took what we said and they fixed the problem. So I think they would be willing to work with us if it were something that was feasible for them to do also. You know, like to go off of some of their reclamation plans. Some of them are self-imposing reclamation already, so we can build on something from them,” Hardy said.
Attorney Norman replied, “I think you’ve done a good job of that, and they are more willing to agree on a case by case basis, when they are not required to, versus state law.”
Discussion continued on forming committees or sub-committees. General Manager Russell Labus said he spoke with Ed Walker about participating with Wintergarden EUWCD on their study regarding drawn down effects and the removal of sand and its effect on recharge and water quality.  Labus said once they figured out who was going to do the study, he was going to present it to the board.
Director Clifton Stacy said regarding the two women (Jones and Hardy) that spoke on flood waters, that is not the board’s purview and they needed to talk to the soil conservation board. Hardy said she strongly disagreed, because in their rules, it specifies waste.
Jones said, “It didn’t flood. This was wastewater breach that went on my property.”
“From a retention pond of groundwater,” added Hardy. “That is your job.”
Hardy said TCEQ had the video and photos and was finishing up the investigation.

 

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