January 25, 2007

Alpine Water Issues
By Jack D. McNamara

The Legislature is in session and once again the question which bedevils Texas is on the agenda — water. A few bills are trickling in. Representative Pete P. Gallego has two concerning the Presidio and Brewster County groundwater districts (HB 546 and HB 545). Representative Senfronia Thompson of Houston has a bill “relating to the requirement that state agencies identify and address adverse human health and environmental effects on minority populations and low-income populations (HB 601).”

Perhaps she will come to southeast Alpine and ask why we cannot fix their water distribution problem.

The Alpine City Council had a proposed letter drafted by City Attorney Rod Ponton, “re: water rates for certain customers of the city of Alpine” on the January 16 agenda but the meeting was iced out. The letter is also on the current agenda.

And the Big Bend Sentinel has recently published news stories by Richard Grabman, “Special Rights for Alpine water users end with judge’s ruling” which describes the 394th district Court decision which ends the practices of a half-century — if the decision is enforced.

That of course is always the problem in Alpine. Will we pay any attention to judges, legislatures, constitutions or even the votes of a majority? Or will we revert to our outlaw past? The history is mixed.

Prior to and through World War II, the citizens of Alpine mostly got their water from their back yards. Old-timers say that when the train came you could usually find water at about 20 feet in the city’s immediate area.

After World War II the city suffered the withering seven years’ drought at the same time we started growing. GIs came to Sul Ross for the GI Bill and often stayed. The water levels in the backyard wells dropped and the anxieties of the city fathers rose. No water, no growth.

There ensued an often-frantic search for new water supplies. They searched the obvious locations, the surrounding ranchland. Over the course of about 20 years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, the city found adequate water for our growing population.

This was a period of brutal local politics and many bruises remain. The history is replete with false scents, but a reading of Dr. Clifford Casey’s account in Alpine, Texas Then and Now, A Centennial Edition of 1983 tells the tale.

The first new water supply was in due west Sunny Glen, near the bend in RM 1703, at the “Terry” well. Other wells were developed along the general line of 1703 to the north even unto the plateau, across the Sunny Glen creek. Good wells, but the water had to be gotten to Alpine. Our city fathers found surplus pipe in Del Rio, bought a truck and went after it. An eight-inch line proceeded to Alpine.

But there was one itty-bitty oversight. The city failed to obtain easements for the pipeline. What they did was trade or barter the right-of-way for the water pipe to property owners between the wellheads and the ultimate users in the city.

Technically this was not “free” — except over the period of 50 years that is a lot of water, especially since there was much growth in Sunny Glen. Properties subdivided with subsequent sales and water connections were made — some free, some at city rates, and some at the city rate plus one-half.

Bad deal — though not in the original intent.

About a third of Alpine’s water still comes from that Sunny Glen field.

Two thirds comes from the Musquiz field, about 10 miles north of Alpine. Those nine wells were first purchased and then given to the city by Herbert L. Kokernot, Jr. in a complex financial deal completed in the mid-1970s. This time the water line was subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Fed’s deal prohibited the kind of arrangements and bartering common to the Sunny Glen line.

Of course, a succession of Alpine administrators and politicians ignored the rules and continued to provide free connections anyway. They even gave the free connections and water to the hangar renters who were paying only 10 cents a square foot at the municipal airport.

All of the 79 “problematic” accounts may be different in one way or another. Each must be solved on a case-by-case basis to comply with the judge’s ruling. There are some harmless deals here and some bad deals. The city, particularly the city council of 2003, must be commended for trying to solve the problem. They had to get rid of two “professional” city managers, Bill Lewis and Karen Philippi, to even survey the number of problematic accounts.

But now city hall is on the way to righteousness. We talked to City Attorney Rod Ponton for an update Tuesday —