Kerrville council OKs manager to finish MOA joining GBRA habitat-conservation plan

KERRVILLE, Texas — The Kerrville City Council on Tuesday authorized the city manager to finalize and sign a memorandum of agreement with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) to participate in a basinwide Guadalupe River Habitat Conservation Plan, a multi-year effort meant to give participating water users regulatory assurances under the Endangered Species Act.

The agreement does not bind Kerrville to the final federal permit; it directs staff to complete the MOA language and continue negotiations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Council members voted unanimously to let the city manager complete the MOA after staff confirmed the document will be revised to reflect the city’s specific operations.

The plan covers activities from the North and South Forks through the main stem of the Guadalupe River and is designed to quantify both harmful effects (diversions, low-head dams and wastewater discharges) and compensating conservation measures. Nathan Pence, GBRA’s executive manager for environmental science, described the approach as “identify[ing] things that have negative impacts on species and then…identify[ing] the positive things an entity would do to offset those impacts.”

Pence and GBRA staff said the authority has already secured federal planning grants and carried the bulk of early planning costs. “GBRA has applied for two Section 6 Department of the Interior grants and we were awarded both of those grants for a total of $2,000,000,” Pence told council. He said the overall planning and modeling effort to write the Habitat Conservation Plan has totaled roughly $3.5 million so far, with GBRA picking up the remainder after grant awards.

Pence told council the administrative cost to run an approved plan — once a permit and implementation requirements are set by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — would likely run “somewhere between a half to a million dollars,” and that Kerrville’s share, based on water use apportionment and the city’s relative size in the basin, would likely be “somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000.” Pence cautioned that those figures are estimates until the federal agency completes negotiation and issues the permit.

City staff and GBRA emphasized that signing the MOA simply allows Kerrville to continue at the negotiating table and does not obligate the city to sign the final certificate of inclusion that would carry precise commitments and costs. Stuart (city staff) told council that the MOA “is kind of flexible” and that the certificate of inclusion would be a later, detailed agreement with specific numeric and financial terms. GBRA staff said that enforcement and monitoring would include annual reporting to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and periodic field checks.

Council members asked about what the agreement would buy for the city; staff said the plan acts as a regulatory assurance mechanism and reduces the legal and permitting risk that municipalities face under the Endangered Species Act. Pence said the plan would allow participants to implement conservation actions (for example, providing instream flows or carefully timed effluent releases) in a quantified way that USFWS could accept as mitigation.

The timeline presented to council anticipates finishing negotiations with federal fish-and-wildlife staff in the coming year, submitting the permit application next year, and a permit decision potentially in 2027–2028. Council’s action Tuesday directs the city manager to finalize the MOA language and continue the city’s participation in the development and negotiation of the habitat conservation plan.

The council vote was unanimous. Mayor Joe Herring Jr. and GBRA staff attended the presentation and the council discussion.