PRESIDIO COUNTY — The Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD) installed new water level monitoring equipment in three wells across the county this month — with plans to install 15 more — to collect more data on the area’s under-studied aquifers.
The county will soon contain a total of 25 water level monitoring sites that will gather data on the Igneous Aquifer and West Texas Bolsons, two minor aquifers tri-county residents rely on for their water supplies.
“Measuring water levels is the most important thing that a groundwater district can do,” PCUWCD General Manager Trey Gerfers said. “These data points help us to construct a greater overall picture of the health of the aquifers.”
The 18 wells will be outfitted with permanent monitoring equipment that takes measurements every hour. Data points are sent electronically to the groundwater conservation district’s data management software, and some sites will contribute to the National Groundwater Monitoring Network.
Gerfers said the data will help the county understand trends in its water levels over time — like how levels correlate to spring flow, rainfall and recharge — and better plan for the future.
Without that comprehensive water level data, the PCUWCD is “flying blind,” he said. “The old timers say there’s an ocean of water under there — everyone has always heard that and always thought that — and that could very well be the case, but we need data to confirm that,” Gerfers said.
Funding for the effort — which includes some salaries, equipment, travel and the drilling of a well — totals $170,000 and is coming from grants from the Horizon Foundation and the United States Geological Survey.
Some of the participating wells were already being measured annually by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). The PCUWCD will now take over that monitoring on behalf of the TWDB, part of a greater effort by the state-wide agency to “collaborate more closely with local districts,” Gerfers said. Local groundwater districts can more readily measure their wells compared to the TWDB, which is tasked with covering the entire state and has limited resources, he said.
Most of the monitoring wells are located on private property, with the landowners giving permission to the TWDB and PCUWCD to install monitoring equipment. Gerfers said many of the monitoring wells are concentrated around the cities of Marfa and Presidio, while others are placed in Big Bend Ranch State Park, the Chinati Mountains, south of Valentine and other locations.
“Roughly half of the wells are in the Igneous Aquifer and the other half of the wells are in the West Texas Bolsons,” Gerfers said. “The two main aquifer systems in our county, within our district, will be covered.”
The PCUWCD is also planning to conduct water quality tests and share results with landowners at no cost. Landowners will also be able to request hydrographs of their wells on a monthly basis, Gerfers said. He said the services are not only beneficial for landowners, but the entire county, and no new rules or restrictions are involved.
“This isn’t really about expanding the authority of the groundwater district or trying to take control of people’s groundwater,” Gerfers said. “It’s really just trying to help people understand it, and gain a better, more comprehensive picture of the health of the aquifers for everyone.”
More data will also help the groundwater district better determine its desired future conditions (DFCs) for the aquifers — required benchmarks that identify the amount of groundwater needed to sustain local natural resources, the human population and the economy. Models that determine DFCs generated by the TWDB will now have access to daily, versus annual, data from wells, helping them craft a more dynamic model and more meaningful DFCs, Gerfers said.
If the Big Bend region were to experience significant population growth, changing rainfall patterns or other effects of climate change, the increased data will help inform decisions and protect resident’s access to a vital resource, Gerfers said.
“The more data we have the better,” he said. “We’re going to be able to craft solutions and approaches so that we can continue to prosper and we don’t see major deterioration of our quality of life.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story stated new water level monitoring equipment was installed in 18 wells, when in fact three wells have received the equipment, with plans for 15 more. It was also incorrectly stated that measurements will take place every 12 hours, when in fact they will take place every hour. We regret the errors.