Governor signs bill aiding local aquifer storage project

Gov. Greg Abbott Saturday signed Senate Bill 616 that local officials expect to help make the proposed Medina County aquifer storage and recovery project a future reality.
The proposed project calls for creating a 50,000 acre-foot freshwater ASR project in the brackish Trinity Aquifer beneath the Edwards Aquifer. SB 616 amends the state water code to address aquifer storage and recovery projects that intersect the Edwards Aquifer, specifically in Williamson County east of Interstate 35.
“The bill clarifies that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) may authorize injection wells that transect the Edwards Aquifer under certain conditions,” Fast Democracy reports. “These conditions include the injection of groundwater withdrawn from the Edwards Aquifer, stormwater, floodwater, or groundwater through improved sinkholes or caves, and specifically, the inclusion of ASR injection wells that inject water into a geologic formation underlying the Edwards Aquifer.”
The bill was sponsored by state senators Charles Schwertner and Sarah Eckhardt and state representative Caroline Harris Davila.
Medina County Judge Keith Lutz, addressing a meeting of the Medina County Regional Water Alliance earlier this month, reported that an amendment in support of the local ASR project had been successfully attached to SB 616.
That amendment will put the Medina County project “on the fast track” in Austin, Lutz said.
The bill was passed by the 89th Texas Legislature on May 12.