By Bill O’Connell
Wilson County News

LA VERNIA — A proposal to divert water from Cibolo Creek to create an alternate water source for municipal and irrigation uses has drawn so much interest that a public meeting has been called by state environmental officials.

The Canyon Regional Water Authority (CRWA) has applied for a permit to pump a maximum of 5,042 acre-feet a year from Cibolo Creek, on a 125-acre tract of land near La Vernia. One acre-foot of water is the equivalent of 325,860 gallons. The property currently includes water rights that allow up to 42 acre-feet to be diverted from the creek annually.

Plans include the possibility of creating a reservoir to hold the water for CRWA, which supplies 40 percent of La Vernia’s municipal water demand. In addition to utilizing water from Cibolo Creek, groundwater could also be pumped into the reservoir to keep the water supply firm, an engineer for La Vernia said.

A public meeting will be conducted at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 at La Vernia City Hall, 102 E. Chihuahua.

At a Jan. 8 regular meeting, La Vernia council members agreed to make City Hall available for the meeting. The council was given an update on CRWA’s plans during a portion of the meeting reserved for public comment.

"We knew they [CRWA] had bought property," La Vernia Mayor Adeline Pierdolla said of the plan, which has met with resistance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Public input to TCEQ from Wilson County residents on the water-diversion proposal was "abundant," Pat Lackey, an engineer for River City Engineering, told the council.
River City Engineering has a contract with La Vernia to perform wastewater-engineering services, and the firm also provides services to CRWA. La Vernia is one of the authority’s 12 wholesale customers.

If approved, the water authority would pump water from Cibolo Creek when the stream flow exceeds 9.6 cubic feet per second (cfs). It would divert water from the creek at a rate of 7 cfs — or 3,146.6 gallons per minute (gpm) — when the stream flow on Cibolo Creek registers between 9.6 to 27 cfs.

The maximum pumping rate would be 42 cfs— or 18,849.6 gpm — during stream flows in excess of 125 cfs.

TCEQ officials recommended that the permit be denied.

CRWA seeks a public hearing in Austin on the matter, Lackey told Mayor Pierdolla and councilmen Harold Schott, Bobby Richter, and Eric Friedrichs. Councilman Wes Krueger was not present.

The council considered a number of other items at its Jan. 8 meeting.

•Robert Darilek of the San Antonio accounting firm Darilek, Butler & Company presented an audit of the town’s 2002-03 fiscal year budget.

"Financially, your status is good," Darilek said.

A question was raised by Councilman Schott regarding the amount of revenue collected by the city through court fines, which the auditor’s report indicated had dropped from $24,000 in 2002 to $1,600 last year.

"That’s a big disparity there," Schott said.

Darilek said he would look further into the matter and report back to the council.

•The city will begin accepting sealed bids for a backhoe and street sweeper that had been eyed by the council for auction on the Internet. Bids will be opened at the council’s regular meeting Feb. 12.

•Other discussions regarding municipal finances included a $5,000 cap the council placed on repairs to an electric generator, and an update on efforts to fix low water pressure problems in subdivisions such as Silverado Hills and Woodcreek.

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