By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A local businessman who has been involved in regional water planning for decades on
Tuesday urged members of the Del Rio City Council to approve increases in the city’s
water and wastewater rates.
Del Rioan Jerry Simpton, who has served as a member of the Region J Water Planning
Group for the Texas Water Development Board for more than 30 years, spoke to the
council during “citizen comments,” shortly after the start of the meeting.
Later on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting, council heard a presentation on a new rate
study commissioned by the city and considered – and eventually approved – two
ordinances containing significant increases for city water and wastewater (sewer) rates.
Simpton told the council, “Mr. Mayor, councilpersons, I wanted to speak with you
tonight about our water situation and the need for rate increases to pay for infrastructure.”
Simpton briefly reviewed his background as it pertains to regional water issues, noting he
“has been involved in water for nearly 60 years.” In addition to serving for 15 years on
the city’s public utilities commission, he has served for more than 30 years representing
Val Verde County on one of the Texas Water Development Board’s regional water
planning groups.
Simpton said, “I’m here tonight to urge the council to pass rate increases to pay for debt
to build wells down into our aquifer. Currently, we rely on the (San Felipe) springs where
we have pumps installed to provide water for the citizens, but the springs, during times of
drought and low lake levels, we’ve seen ’em go nearly dry, and we’ve had to quit using
the East Springs already when we’re in a drought situation.
“We got lucky last August and September. We got some strong rains that boosted the
aquifer level up, that allowed us to operate fairly well over the last 12 months, but if we
didn’t have that, we would probably be in an emergency situation right now. So we got
lucky; (the rains) bought us some time, but I urge you all, if we go through this process,
to make decisions pretty quick. We’ve been wrestling with this for a long, long time, and
we’re going to have to take some action,” Simpton said.
He pointed out “the good news” that Del Rio sits over “a strong aquifer” that covers
about 300,000 acres, with recharge coming from as far away as Sonora.
“But we haven’t had much rain over a long period of time, plus we know after the lake
was put in and the lake was filled, it really boosted the level of the aquifer, which really
increased the flow from the springs, but you all know what the situation is in the lake: If
the lake was half-full, we would be in a lot better condition, but nobody can predict when
that’s going to happen,” Simpton said.
After a few additional comments, Simpton’s time to address the council ran out, and he
finished by saying, “I urge you all to please consider passing rate increases to pay for
what we need to, for wells we need to put in to provide water for the future.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
