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The Guadalupe River has receded here, its fury abated. The devastating flooding this month washed away riverfront homes like bobbing corks and left this central Texas city’s tourist economy so crippled that officials have begun an emergency advertising campaign.
”New Braunfels,” a proposed advertisement says. ”It’s still there.”
Yet the breadth and power of the flooding, the spectacle of that roiling brown water, have temporarily obscured a problem: in normal times, the Guadalupe may not have enough water to meet the demands of one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions.
This finite supply has prompted one of the most unusual water wars in the country. While cities, farmers and industry routinely file applications to pump water from rivers like the Guadalupe, a small Texas environmental group is seeking a permit to ensure that hundreds of billions of gallons of water are allowed to flow untouched to the Gulf of Mexico.
Environmentalists say the step is necessary to maintain the health of the Guadalupe and the estuary at its mouth. They cite problems that poor planning and poor management have wrought on the Everglades and on the Rio Grande. But others say the proposal would wreak havoc on a region desperate for drinking water by eliminating a vital source that is not threatened.
”It’s a very interesting, very classic water battle,” said W. E. West Jr., general manager of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, which opposes the permit.
The Guadalupe meanders about 300 miles, from the Hill Country to the San Antonio Bay at the Gulf of Mexico. The Hill Country is semi-arid and susceptible to drought, but the rocky terrain makes the region vulnerable to flash flooding in rare downpours. After heavy rains this month, the normally placid Guadalupe turned into a violent waterway.
Here in New Braunfels, Michael Meek, president of the chamber of commerce, was fretting on July 3 that the drought might threaten the peak season of the city’s $200 million tourist industry. Thousands were expected for Fourth of July inner-tube rides down the Guadalupe. Mr. Meek got so many calls that he issued a news release promising that the Guadalupe would be ”toobable.”
Little did he know. ”It’s either feast or famine,” he said of the recent flood-or-drought existence along the Guadalupe. A 1998 flood followed similar spasms of flash flooding.
The longer dry periods drive the dispute over the Guadalupe. New Braunfels, San Marcos and Victoria draw drinking water from the river.
A regional water plan calls for pumping billions of gallons of water from the mouth of the Guadalupe to San Antonio. Yet many environmentalists worry that such stress on the river will reduce its flow and irreversibly damage the estuary.
The estuary, the breeding ground for shrimp, oysters and red snapper, as well as the winter home for the endangered whooping crane, depends on an influx of fresh water.
”We could see water rights being handed out right and left,” said Dianne Wassenich, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation, the group seeking the water permit. ”We were concerned that there wouldn’t be any water left.”
Ms. Wassenich’s group applied in July 2000 for a water right on the Guadalupe. Its application asked that 1.15 million acre feet of water be left in the river, a figure based on a state wildlife study to determine how much water was needed to maintain the estuary. An acre foot of water is the amount needed to cover an acre to a depth of a foot, or 325,851 gallons. The timing of the application was significant. In Texas, water rights are assigned in chronological order, meaning that during droughts, those with the oldest permits are first. The San Marcos application preceded the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority’s proposal to pump water to San Antonio.
The San Marcos application quickly attracted national attention. This year, the American Rivers Foundation named the Guadalupe one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the nation because of potential pumping demands. Western environmental groups have increasingly sought water rights as a way to protect rivers.
Mr. West, of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, portrayed the application as an effort to stop growth and development in central Texas. Population in the region is expected to double by 2050, and the water supply, particularly in San Antonio, is a leading political issue. Mr. West said the San Marcos application would undercut a water plan approved by the State Legislature.
”It’s a classic situation of growth versus nongrowth,” he said. He contends that the San Marcos application seeks to keep too much water ”in stream,” leaving little for other uses. ”That magnitude of water for bays and estuaries will simply prevent moving water to San Antonio.”
A decision on the permit application will be made by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. Cities like New Braunfels oppose the San Marcos application, saying it does not fairly share the resource. Several wildlife and sportsmen groups and some residents of tiny fishing villages on the estuary support the application. The Legislature, which will meet in 2003, will probably address the issue.
Dr. Larry McKinney, senior director of aquatic resources for the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, said the San Marcos application had focused public attention on the long-term health of the river. A disputed question is how much water is available on the Guadalupe. Dr. McKinney pointed to a study that suggested there might be enough for all.
”My question to both sides is, What are we fighting about?” he said. ”Why can’t we figure out some plan to preserve enough water for the ecological health of the river and the bay and meet the growing needs of cities like San Antonio?”