The time has finally come!
The Fayette County Groundwater Conservation District will be moving into
its new offices located in the brand new Agricultural Building located
at 255 Svoboda Lane, Room 115 in La Grange on May 17, 2008. As a
result of the move, the office will be closed for business Thursday, May
15 through Tuesday, May 20, 2008. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.
We invite and welcome you to
come by and check out our new surroundings!!
TWDB
Launches "Texas Rain Catcher Award"
The Texas Water Development
Board (TWDB) launched the Texas Rain Catcher Award program on
October 1, 2007, to promote rainwater harvesting in Texas, educate the
public, and recognize excellence in the application of rainwater
harvesting systems. The competition is open to all individuals,
companies, organizations, municipalities, and other state and local
governmental entities in Texas. To apply for this award, owners of
rainwater harvesting systems in Texas must submit applications describing
their systems. These applications will be judged by a team
consisting of TWDB staff and outside expert(s), and winners will be
publicly recognized on the TWDB web site for at least two years.
The Fayette County Groundwater
Conservation District has adopted a tax rate that will raise more
taxes for maintenance and operations than last year's tax rate.
The tax rate is 0.01 and will raise taxes for
maintenance and operations on a $100,000 home by approximately $2.50 (two
dollars and fifty cents).
OURMISSION:
To
provide for the conservation, preservation, protection, recharging, and
prevention of waste of groundwater and groundwater reservoirs or their
subdivisions, and to control subsidence caused by withdrawal of water from those
groundwater reservoirs or their subdivisions, consistent with the objectives of
Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution. Groundwater conservation districts created as provided by this chapter are the state's
preferred method of groundwater management through rules developed, adopted, and
promulgated by a district in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
GUIDING
PRINCIPLES
The
District was formed, and has been operated from its inception, with the guiding
belief that the ownership and pumpage of groundwater is a private property
right. It is understood that, through the confirmation election of the District,
the landowners relinquished some of their control over that right for the
collective benefit of the community which the District serves.
The District has adopted the principle of “education first” and regulation
as a last resort in their effort to encourage conservation of the
resource. As a result, the rules of the District are designed to give all
landowners a fair and equal opportunity to use the groundwater resource
underlying their property for beneficial purposes. If, at the request of
the constituents of the District, more stringent management strategies are
needed to better manage the resource, these strategies will be put in place
after an extensive educational process and with the perceived majority approval
of the constituents. The District will continue to monitor groundwater quality
and quantity in order to better understand the dynamics of the aquifer systems
over which it has jurisdiction.
The District offers free brochures and information sheets concerning many aspects of water conservation
and protection. In addition, there is a quarterly newsletter, and a weekly e-mail to inform District residents of
water issues in the news, both available free upon request. For more information, contact us.
