WhoopingCrane_UnappropriatedFlows_Levin_Ilan_AustinTX_30May2020_Reel4015.mp3

Ilan Levin [00:00:01] It was in in the 90s that the Sierra Club brought some lawsuits to try to force regulation of groundwater pumping in the Edwards Aquifer.

Ilan Levin [00:00:20] So, the city of San Antonio had been for years just taking water out of the aquifer. And others, of course, were also. You know, ranchers and farmers were pumping water out of the aquifer. And so those series of lawsuits that were endangered species cases Sierra Club brought in the 90s is what forced the state of Texas to finally begin to start gently regulating groundwater taking.

Ilan Levin [00:01:02] But that that put more pressure on the, you know, on the rivers and on the surface water.

Ilan Levin [00:01:10] And so when the folks at the San Marcos River Foundation started to see these developers, water, water developers, you know, eyeing all this river water to build reservoirs and dams and to, and to channel water long distances to, you know, growing cities and so forth, they, they started to look at ways to protect the system.

Ilan Levin [00:01:41] A gentleman by the name of John Hohn, who was active in the San Marcos River Foundation, really kind of pushed the idea that, that it was high time that conservation groups used the same rules that the water developers and those that were trying to make money off of selling water, the same rules that they were using to divert and take water out of the streams for their, what they called their beneficial uses - that conservationists could do the same thing.

Ilan Levin [00:02:23] And they just kept cobbling together, at the time, I think it was about twenty five thousand dollars - so not an insignificant fee, but that was the permit fee. That they could, you know, put together this application asking the state environmental agency, the TNRCC, which became the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, that we know today, the TCEQ. They put together this application where they quantified the amount of unappropriated water that was left in that basin. And they were able to quantify the flows, the river flows.

Ilan Levin [00:03:17] And they just filed their application saying, we want this much water.

Ilan Levin [00:03:22] And it was something over a million acre feet a year of water, which was what the science at the time showed was needed to sustain the bay, Aransas Bay, and this important wintering site for, for the whooping cranes.