Disregarding local opposition, the City of Austin is conducting a three-year study of an aquifer storage recovery project in Bastrop County on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
Local residents voiced concerns that the project could put their drinking water supply at risk of contamination.
Bastrop officials approved a resolution in the spring that underscored the local sentiment, reading, “the proposed ASR project entails significant potential harm to essential groundwater resources and private property rights, and no compensatory benefit to the citizens of the City of Bastrop.”
“I just want to say that all of Bastrop County opposes this project,” Bastrop County Commissioner Butch Carmack of Precinct 1 told the Austin American-Statesman last month.
To mitigate concerns, the City of Austin is allowing Bastrop “stakeholders” a say in the project. However, neither the selection process nor the identities of these stakeholders is publicly disclosed.
Bastrop has undergone significant effort to try to stop this testing.
Residents came together to propose House Bill 1523, which would ensure that the integrity of the aquifer is protected and that local concerns are fully addressed before any project can be authorized.
HB 1523 died in the Senate.
