A groundwater dispute involving SpaceX’s sprawling Texas operations has left the city of McGregor facing at least $175,000 in penalties and a 25-year financial commitment after the company pumped 128 million gallons of groundwater above permitted limits from a well owned by the city, as per the The Waco Bridge. McGregor City Council approved a negotiated settlement with the Southern Trinity Groundwater Conservation District on Monday, allowing the city to avoid a potential district court battle over the groundwater violations. The city is responsible for the penalties because it owns the SpaceX site and the wells used by the company.
Under the agreement, McGregor will make a one-time payment of $50,000 by November 1, followed by quarterly payments of $1,250 for the next 25 years. The payments will help fund a new groundwater monitoring system on the well used by SpaceX. The settlement also requires the city to make “reasonable efforts to obtain additional sources of water”. The groundwater district issued violation notices to both SpaceX and McGregor in each of the past three years over the pumping, which totalled 128 million gallons above the permitted amount. McGregor City Manager Kevin Evans said the city was satisfied with the settlement and that SpaceX had already reduced its groundwater consumption at the site. “Water will always be an issue. We’re working with SpaceX and everyone else in the industrial park to use less potable water,” Evans said. Evans said SpaceX is also working to reuse water at its McGregor location, while the city is exploring alternative sources. Those options include buying groundwater from other communities or obtaining water from Belton Lake through the Bluebonnet Water Supply Corp., which already serves McGregor residents. Evans said he expected the settlement to end the city's conflicts with the groundwater district.
Dispute over how much water remains
The settlement has also highlighted a disagreement over the long-term condition of the aquifer supplying the area. McGregor Mayor Jim Lilley said concerns about groundwater depletion were overstated. “There’s plenty of water in the aquifer,” Lilley said after Monday’s council meeting. He added that the latest overpumping showed there was still substantial water available. Rodney Kroll, president of the Southern Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, disputed that assessment. Kroll said studies of the Southern Trinity Aquifer indicate that it does not recharge. As groundwater is extracted, he said, the water level therefore continues to fall. “Our aquifer does not recharge,” Kroll said. “What that says ultimately is that the water level is going down annually, and some day, we’ll reach a point where there’s no (ground)water.” Kroll said that point could come within about 50 years. The countywide groundwater district was established in 2008 after state regulators determined that the area faced “critical” groundwater shortages in coming decades.
Why McGregor is paying
The financial responsibility has also drawn criticism from residents who argue that SpaceX should bear the cost of the groundwater violations. McGregor resident Danny Campbell opposed the settlement at Monday's meeting, arguing that SpaceX was the main driver behind the excess pumping but was not responsible for the litigation, fees or legal costs. “SpaceX is the primary driver for overpumping these wells, and they're not responsible for the litigation, they're not responsible for the fees, and they're not responsible for the attorney's costs,” Campbell said. “They're not responsible for any of it, and every dollar that goes towards things like this is one dollar taken from our community.” Campbell said she had taken out a $1,200 full-page advertisement in the McGregor Mirror to draw attention to the violations and what she described as a lack of transparency in the city's handling of the issue. Evans said the settlement would not be paid from tax revenue. Instead, the city plans to use money from the sale of city property to cover the penalty. With SpaceX having already reduced its groundwater use and McGregor seeking alternative water sources, city officials expect the settlement to resolve the immediate dispute. But the 25-year monitoring commitment means the consequences of the groundwater overpumping will remain part of McGregor's water management for decades.
