Llano water well dispute derails drilling project

CONNIE SWINNEY • PICAYUNE STAFF

LLANO — Bryan Miiller remembers a time when homes along the Llano River were few and far between.

“I grew up west of Llano between Llano and Mason. There used to be very few houses along the river. That’s been 40 years ago,” said Miiller, who is a Llano city councilman. “Now, if you travel between here and Mason, there’s a great number of houses.”

He believes that, as a result, less water flows downstream to communities such as Llano, population 3,300, which relies on the river as its primary water source.

“People are constantly building along the river. That number of houses is going to continue to increase,” he said. “They cannot pull out of the river for irrigation, but they can pull out of the river for household use and to water their yards. There’s a tremendous amount of water that’s being pulled out of the Llano River.”

For the past two years, Miiller along with the Llano City Council have attempted to secure a secondary water source, utilizing geological, aquifer and drilling research and groundwater and well experts. One challenge for the city involves the fact that considerable swaths of land in the area sit atop a solid granite foundation, shielding much of the Hickory Aquifer from groundwater drilling efforts, officials say.

On April 6, a culmination of the council’s efforts resulted in an approximate $977,000 bid for a proposed well project in southeast Llano County about eight miles from the city.

The council rejected the bid by a split 3-2 vote, sending the possible water solution back to the drawing board.

Miiller and Councilman Todd Keller were the two council members in favor of going forward with phase one of the project.

Council members John Ferguson, Allen Hopson and Gail Lang rejected the bid by C Miller Drilling.

The company proposed tapping into the Hickory Aquifer with a 1,500-foot dig from a location atop Riley Mountain on a private ranch.

The company earmarked more than $400,000 just for a test well, officials said.

If successful, the rest of the money would pay to determine water volume, estimate the viability of the well and make it functional.

Once contractors completed the initial work, the city would still face a potential $6 million price tag just to extend water lines north and tie into the existing municipal system, according to city estimates.

Hopson said he might still support a potential well project but could not vote for the bid offered to the council by city staff.

“It’s the money. There was only one bid; $411,000 just to drill one hole to see if you can get water?” Hopson said. “It doesn’t make sense to go out there with the geology out there. It can be done cheaper, and that’s why I made my motion to re-bid it.”

Hopson, who makes a living with landscape irrigation and maintenance, said his own research influenced his decision.

“If we’re going to really go and look for water, we need to get out of granite country and head north and get into limestone and the Cherokee area with a different aquifer,” he said. “The Hickory that we want to drill into, water is probably there, and we will probably hit a good bit of water. But how do you know how much is there?”

Miiller said he supports going forward with a potential water solution to an uncertain future for a community on the Llano River.

“We’re in the meat-processing business and use a good amount of water. There’s probably a concern about (cities securing) a secondary source of water,” said Miller, whose business employs about 25 people. “I’m afraid the state will start regulating who can drill wells and where they can drill wells. It may be a whole lot harder to do so in the future because of state regulations.”

Miiller added he believes the water issue plaguing the city slows efforts to expand business and create jobs.

“I’ve been in business for 30 years, and we’ve had water rationing almost every year. Just to ignore that I don’t think is a wise approach,” Miiller said.

As the drought has persisted for the past several years, the community has come within 90 days of possibly running out of water during the hottest part of the year.

The city is also in the midst of a dredging project to acquire more water storage capacity near Town Lake Dam.

“Some businesses have looked at Llano and decided not to (locate here) because we haven’t fixed our problem with water,” Miiller said.

The city council is scheduled to open new bids limited to a test well project April 28.

Hopson said cost and risk will be driving factors in his decision.

“I’m not going to sit here and wish and pray and hope and roll the dice with a million bucks of the people’s money,” Hopson said. “The chance of failure is higher than the reward.”

connie@thepicayune.com