POSTPONED: Tecolote Vote Rescheduled for 4/14
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 4/7/09
POSTPONED for One Week: County Commissioner Vote Regarding Tecolote Farm Water Crisis now on 4/14
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THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR LETTERS, CALLS, AND COURTROOM VISITS IN EARLY MARCH IN SUPPORT OF TECOLOTE FARM. YOUR INPUT CONTINUES TO MAKE A MEANINGFUL IMPRESSION ON THE COMMISSIONERS’ COURT.
THE COURT HAS RESCHEDULED THE PITRES’ DATE ON THE AGENDA TO 4/14, AT WHICH TIME COMMISSIONERS WILL VOTE YES OR NO ON JUDGE BISCOE’S PROPOSED PLAN.
Katie Kraemer Pitre said,
April 16, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Well, folks, thanks to your letters, calls, emails, visits, forwarded emails, and general ruckus-raising about the need to share water with farmers, we have news of a successful first step. Were it not for the outpouring of community support, we would never have come this far.
While it is just a baby step right now, it is a start, and for that we are very grateful.
Tuesday’s County Court session ended, after a closed-door executive session, with the news that the Commissioners unanimously agreed to provide initial support to water-seeking endeavors ON the farm. The plan was to approve a project wherein UT Professor Jack Sharp’s class will perform non-intrusive study (as its spring semester project) involving electromagnetic technology to attempt to find the best places on our farm where producible groundwater may be located. That’s to happen May 30-June 4. After that, the County will pay for the drilling of 5 test holes to see if indeed water is there. Judge Biscoe said we will move forward based on the results of that exploration. That is the unclear part, but we have hope that the ball has begun to roll. This plan was an alternative to our request for access to well water on a County easement.
Prof. Sharp offered this idea of water exploration in another part of the farm to us months ago as a mutually beneficial project: to give his students a hands-on, real needs situation and to provide us with information about the geology surrounding the smaller Decker Creek alluvial aquifer. While this is an even smaller water source than the Gilleland Creek alluvial aquifer, there is a chance that we could strike it lucky. The beauty of this aquifer is that there are not other large straws in it. While water production will be less than in our previously abundant wells, there would not be the competition in this smaller aquifer that there is in the Gilleland Creek aquifer. That’s IF we find water back there, of course.
KXAN’s Jim Swift continued his coverage of our water struggles with a late-breaking Tuesday night story:
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/Commissioners_to_help_organic_farm
Here is the story text, if you don’t have time to follow the link and watch the video:
Commissioners to help
organic farm
Tecolote Organic Farm: County wells
dried up water
Updated: Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009, 9:50 AM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 14 Apr 2009, 9:12 PM CDT
* Jim Swift
AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Travis County Commissioners Court agreed late Tuesday to help a local organic farm with its water woes.
Tecolote Farm watered its crops on the East side of the county with a well that had not gone dry since it was drilled decades ago, even surviving the severe drought of the 1950s.
That was before the county drilled wells to service a large new metropolitan park down the road. A county study said its wells were not the problem, but farm owners David and Katie Pitre countered with their own ground water hydrologists who disagreed.
From the beginning, county officials vowed to help Tecolote if it could be established the county did dry up the farm well. At least one commissioner, however, worried that any help to the farm would establish a precedent that might later work against taxpayers’ interests.
The debate went on for weeks while the Pitres resorted to paying household rates for chlorinated water to water their plants, a practice they say will eventually force them out of business.
The farmers have been gratified by an outpouring of support from customers, environmentalists and other sustainable growers. Tuesday’s court session was no exception.
“We need sustainable, healthy, local food,” Save Our Springs Alliance Director Bill Bunch told the court. “We need these farms close in and accessible to the urban dwellers.”
“It is just a treasure to be able to have this kind of substance to eat and to live on and to share with our families,” said customer James Green.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to get into the entire issue and let’s do it right and support our organic farmers,” customer Melanie McAfee told commissioners.
Meanwhile, University of Texas Professor Jack Sharp told the court he plans to conduct a five-day on-site study of the farm’s water issues in late May. Sharp, who teaches in the university’s Department of Geological Sciences, said he will use his Hydrology Field Methods class students to conduct the study without charge to the Pitres or the county.
The court welcomed the offer and after considering the measure in closed session with county lawyers, voted to pay for the drilling of up to five test holes on the property when the study is complete.
Asked if the county was admitting responsibility for Tecolote’s dry well, County Judge Sam Biscoe said, “We won’t go that far; that could get us in trouble. You know the lawyers.”
Still, Katie Pitre was encouraged.
“It’s not dead yet,” she said of the effort to save the farm.
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TECOLOTE FARM :: Certified Organic! Certified Good!
Tecolote Farm Update « Edible Aria said,
April 16, 2009 at 11:04 pm
[...] Yea! Read the rest [...]
Dink said,
April 17, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Great job !! Congratulations on the first step. Good luck with the tests.