AGUA

Elyzabeth Earnley did a fantastic performance on behalf of AGUA. AGUA, Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, is a non-profit organization that relies on grants and donations to keep the organization striving. The organizations main focus is on protecting the Edwards Aquifer. For the beginning of her presentation we recapped what we have already talked about in previous class periods. She discussed where the Edwards Aquifer is located and the people who rely on it. The Edwards Aquifer lies within the counties Edwards, Kerr, Real, Bandera, Kendall, Comal, Hays, Travis, Bexar, Medina, Uvalde, and Kinney. San Antonio along with millions of other people in Central Texas benefit from this aquifer. The aquifer is broken down into four different zones. These zones are the contributing zone, the recharge zone, transition/artesian zone, and the artesian zone. The contributing zone is an area where rainfall is collected. This water passes through the limestone formation to the recharge zone. The water is then held within the artesian zone until it is dispersed. After Earnley explained the Edwards Aquifer, we looked into environmental issues that affected it. These issues lead to contamination of the aquifer which would be impossible to clean once it is highly contaminated. The issue that is affecting the aquifer the most would be contractors using the “grandfathering clause.” The “grandfathering clause” allows contractors to use someone else’s property plan or documents which go back into the properties history to build over the recharge zone. The contract could have nothing to do with this land at the time of the document but, are still allowed to use it as their own document. Earnley has stood in front of numerous city meetings using documents from SAWS, the Edwards Aquifer, and the actual case trying to prevent the construction to take place. While rapping her speech up we were put into groups to view actual cases that have taken place. Our objective was to see if the contractors were allowed to build what they wanted on that location with no restrictions.