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Hurricane board raises questions on Sand Hollow aquifer study; meeting with state engineer set
Summary
Board members expressed concerns about a USGS-based safe-yield estimate for the Sand Hollow Aquifer, discrepancies in user allocations, and gaps in monitoring data; the citizens committee will meet the state engineer next week and submit a letter to the state.
Board members discussed an ongoing dispute over the Sand Hollow Aquiferstudy and whether municipal and private withdrawals are impairing other users' water rights. The board reported that the water district and USGS study estimate a safe yield near 2,100 acre-feet of natural recharge but noted that allocations on paper are much larger and that the districtuser list appears to include users not physically in the basin.
A board member summarized the concerns: the district reported allocated water on paper of roughly 20,000 acre-feet while the user list the district circulated shows about 11,000 acre-feet. Board members said many listed users are not in the studied area and that recharge estimates vary between 2,100 and 8,500 acre-feet depending on assumptions. They also questioned the geographic scope of the study, which they said omitted areas west of Turfside Road and south of the reservoir, and asked for more monitoring well and pumping data near the reservoir.
A citizens committee meeting with the state engineer and staff was scheduled for next Tuesday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m.; the board said it will prepare a letter to submit to the state by April 14 and expects a hearing in June. Board members said they will press the state engineer on model assumptions (including how the report treats deep aquifer contributions, caliche, and rapid flow through fissures) and on distinguishing reservoir recharge from natural aquifer recharge. "We need an accurate list of the water users in the basin because, heck, we might not be overdrawing it if you take all the people out that aren't actually in the study area," a committee member said.
No formal action was recorded; the board said it will continue to collect pumping data, static water levels and historical well logs and will submit questions to the state engineer in advance of next week's meeting.
