EARIP | Background

Background

The Edwards Aquifer is a unique groundwater resource, extending 180 miles from Brackettville in Kinney County to Kyle in Hays County (Attachment 1). It is the primary source of drinking water for over 2 million people in south central Texas and serves the domestic, agricultural, industrial, and recreational needs of the area. The Edwards Aquifer is the source of the only two major springs remaining in Texas - the San Marcos and the Comal. These springs feed the San Marcos and Comal Rivers which are tributaries to the Guadalupe River.

Eight species that depend directly on water in, or discharged from, the Edwards Aquifer system are federally-listed as threatened or endangered. These species include: fountain darter, San Marcos salamander, San Marcos gambusia, Texas blind salamander, Peck's cave amphipod, Comal Springs dryopid beetle, Comal Springs riffle beetle and Texas wild rice. The primary threat to the aquifer-dependent listed species is the intermittent loss of habitat from reduced springflows. Springflow loss is the combined result of naturally fluctuating rainfall patterns, regional intermittent pumping, and temporal drawdown of the aquifer.

In 1991, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit under the Federal Endangered Species Act that resulted in the creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority ("EAA"). The Texas Legislature directed the EAA to regulate pumping from the aquifer, implement critical period management restrictions, and pursue measures to ensure minimum continuous springflows of the Comal and San Marcos Springs are maintained to protect endangered and threatened species to the extent required by federal law. Today, competing water needs within the region continue to influence management of the resource, and a workable plan for the long-term protection for the federally-listed species has yet to be adopted among the region’s stakeholders.

In late 2006, FWS brought together stakeholders from throughout the region to participate in a unique collaborative process to develop a plan to contribute to the recovery of federally-listed species dependent on the Edwards Aquifer. This process is referred to as the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program ("EARIP"). In May 2007, the Texas Legislature directed the EAA and certain other stateand municipal water agencies to participate in the EARIP and to prepare a FWS-approved plan by 2012 for managing the Aquifer to preserve the listed species at Comal and San Marcos Springs. The Legislature directed that the plan must include recommendations regarding withdrawal adjustments during critical periods that ensure that federally-listed species associated with the Edwards Aquifer will be protected.