If the project goes forward after the study period, it will require permits from federal, state and local government agencies.
Obtaining these permits can take several years, so LCRA and SAWS plan to apply for the permits during the study period.
Each government agency has a separate permitting process, but all include public input. Opportunities for public input will be publicized during the permitting process.
Federal
During construction, the project would discharge dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, which include navigable waters, wetlands and streams. This activity requires a Section 404/10 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the River and Harbors Act of 1899.
The federal permit requires the project to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and to receive water quality certification (Clean Water Action, Section 401) from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Permit applicants must propose a practicable plan for construction with the fewest adverse impacts to the aquatic environment. The application must include sufficient information for the Corps to begin the permit review process and decide the level of documentation required by NEPA.
Major components of the federal permit application:
- Statement of project purpose.
- Identification of a proposed action.
- Proposed conceptual design of project, including engineering.
- Narrative discussion of project components
- Identification of property owners for facilities sites and adjacent land.
- Maps
- Locations of proposed transmission corridors, storage facilities and treatment facilities.
- Proposed facility footprints.
- Conceptual drawings of transmission system and delivery point for raw water.
- Delineation of potential jurisdictional waters of the U.S. (wetlands and streams) for the proposed project.
- Direct impacts to potentially jurisdictional waters of the U.S. for the proposed alternative.
- Identification of potential impacts to sensitive resources, including wetlands, streams, cultural resources and endangered and threatened species.
- Description of possible indirect impacts.
NEPA requires federal agencies to evaluate their actions, including permit approvals, to determine what the environmental and interrelated socioeconomic effects of that action could be. If the action could be defined as a major federal action, documentation must be prepared to assess those impacts and is subject to public review.
Federal agencies include two key components in the NEPA documentation, especially for environmental impact statements:
- Alternatives Analyses: A comparison of reasonable alternatives must be prepared. This must include the comparison of forecast conditions without the project, reasonable alternatives, and the preferred alternative or proposed project.
- Impact Analyses: The assessment of impacts to the affected environment must be included in the alternatives evaluation. Impacts must be assessed in terms of direct impacts (caused by and occurring during the project), indirect impacts (caused by the project but occurring afterward), and cumulative impacts (the incremental impacts of the Project when added to other projects that can be reasonably assumed to occur.)
State
Water rights permits, including amendments and interbasin transfer authorizations, are granted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. LCRA will seek to amend nearly all of its water rights, including rights to water stored in lakes Travis and Buchanan and rights to downstream run-of-river flows. The amendments would allow for additional types and locations of use, and transfer of river water from the Colorado River basin to the San Antonio river basin.
Under state law, water diverted for an interbasin transfer is given a "junior" priority date, which means that the needs of all existing in-basin water rights must be fully satisfied before these junior diversions can occur. The amount of water that can be supplied to SAWS on a firm basis in compliance with interbasin transfer laws is one of the questions being answered during the project’s study period.
General requirements for water rights permit applications (Chapter 11, Texas Water Code and Chapter 295, Texas Administrative Code):
- Maps of proposed diversion locations and related transmission and storage facilities.
- Off-channel storage facility designs.
- Water conservation and drought contingency plans.
- Hydrological analyses for the proposed project and the system operations approach.
- Contract price of the water to be transferred.
- Statement of each general category of proposed use of the water to be transferred and a detailed description of the proposed uses and users under each category.
- Projected effect on user rates and fees for each class of ratepayers.
Specific requirements for the interbasin transfer permitting process:
- Application notice, hearing and fees.
- At least one public comment meeting in each basin, conducted by the TCEQ.
- Notices published in newspapers and mailed to water right holders, county judges, groundwater conservation districts and others in the basin of origin.
Local
Permits from local groundwater conservation districts will be required for proposed groundwater wells to serve agricultural irrigation. Groundwater districts are the state’s preferred method for managing groundwater at the local level.
The districts manage groundwater use by adopting rules on well permitting, spacing and production limits. The districts are governed by Chapter 36, Texas Water Code.
