Comal, Hays & Blanco Counties · Texas Hill Country
Growth Is Coming.The Water Isn't Replaceable.
Canyon Lake, the Guadalupe, the Blanco, and the aquifers beneath them supply drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Texans, and none of it can be replaced. We're neighbors working to make reuse the standard and discharge the last resort, while those decisions are still being made.
One Watershed. One Plan. One Future.
Guadalupe River System · Downstream of Canyon Lake
~20 Million
Gallons per Day
Treated Wastewater Discharge Capacity
That Already Exists Today
And more capacity is being requested. Each permit gets reviewed on its own, one at a time, as if the others weren't there. Nobody is adding them up.
Hill Country limestone is porous and fractured. What goes into a dry creek doesn't stay in the creek. It moves toward the aquifer, the river, and the lake we drink from and float on.
Our Mission
Harness the Growth. Protect the Water.
We're neighbors, landowners, business owners, anglers, tubers, and families who happen to share one watershed. Our mission is to protect Canyon Lake, the Guadalupe River, the Blanco River, and the aquifers beneath the Hill Country. We do that by bringing residents, scientists, and officials at every level of government to the same table, and by pushing to make reuse of treated wastewater the standard. Discharge into our creeks and rivers should be the last resort, not the default.
Change is coming whether we like it or not. This region is growing, and nobody here is asking anyone to stop building homes or making a living. What we're asking is that the growth be planned and harnessed instead of approved one permit at a time. Healthy growth doesn't require giving up the water and the ecosystems our communities run on. Once a watershed is degraded, no amount of development buys it back.
We work through education, public awareness, and the permitting process itself. We show up to the meetings, we read the permits, and we ask the questions a real watershed plan would have answered already.
The Blanco carries the same fight. It runs through Blanco and Hays counties, meets the San Marcos, and reaches the Guadalupe downstream of us. It faces the same pressure from the same kind of permits. What protects one of these rivers protects the others.
It starts here, on the Guadalupe and the Blanco. But the standard we're after, reuse first and discharge last, belongs in every watershed in Texas.
Protect the Guadalupe. Protect the Blanco.
Protect them for the generations coming after us.
The Ask
Five Changes That Would Protect This Watershed for Good.
None of this stops development. These are the rules that let a growing region stay livable, and other Texas watersheds already have them. They apply the same way on the Guadalupe, on the Blanco, and on the creeks that feed both.
Watershed-Wide Protections
Pursue Chapter 311-style protections for the entire Guadalupe River watershed, so Canyon Lake gets the same class of safeguards the Highland Lakes already have.
Beneficial Reuse First
Require and reward reuse of treated wastewater through purple pipe, irrigation, industry, and land application before any discharge into a creek or river gets approved.
Science-Based Decisions
Weigh the cumulative impacts with the best science available, including nutrients, algae, pharmaceuticals, PFAS, and karst geology, instead of judging each permit by itself.
Federal & State Partnership
Bring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, TCEQ, and local governments into one comprehensive watershed plan. Canyon Lake is a federal reservoir; it should be planned like one.
Community Involvement
Keep residents informed and able to comment on permits. The deadlines are short, the notices are quiet, and public comment is the one lever we all have.
- Protect Our WaterSafeguard Canyon Lake and the Guadalupe watershed for future generations.
- Reduce DischargesStop the growing volume of treated wastewater flowing into our rivers and tributaries.
- Prioritize ReuseTurn treated wastewater into a resource instead of a disposal problem.
- Preserve Quality of LifeClean water supports our health, our economy, our recreation, and our way of life.
- Collaborate & ActWork with citizens and local, state, and federal leaders on lasting protections.
The Petition
The Texas Water Security & Purple Pipe Protection Plan
- A Pause While the Rules Get WrittenA temporary moratorium on new wastewater discharge permits in the Hill Country and the regions around it. The pause should be spent writing long-term water policy, not running out the clock.
- Prove the Water Exists FirstNew development should have to demonstrate a real, sustainable water supply before it is approved. Right now the aquifer is simply assumed to keep up with whatever gets built on top of it.
- Purple Pipe From Day OneReclaimed water lines for irrigation, parks, golf courses, industrial and commercial use, data center cooling, and construction water. Laying that pipe while a development is being built costs a fraction of what retrofitting it later would, and it turns effluent into a water supply instead of a disposal problem.
- Best Available Treatment TechnologyPlants serving these communities should run the highest standard of treatment available, not the cheapest that clears a permit.
- Safeguards for When Systems FailEven good systems fail: mechanical breakdowns, power outages, operator error, storms. Permits need redundancy, monitoring, and real consequences written into them, because a karst watershed gives you no second chance to catch a spill.
Property values, drinking water, and river recreation here all rest on the same thing. Signing takes a minute and costs nothing.
Take Action
Four Minutes of Your Time Changes What Gets Built Here.
Signatures show the agencies that this is far more than a handful of people. Donations put the message on billboards. Following keeps you ahead of the next permit deadline.
Sign the Petition
Add your name to the call for watershed-wide protections and reuse-first permitting.
Sign on Change.org → FundraiserFund the Billboards
Donations pay for educational billboards across the watershed first, then outreach materials, community meetings, and public education.
Give on GoFundMe → FacebookFollow the Day-to-Day
Meeting announcements, live streams from TCEQ hearings, comment deadlines, and updates from the field.
Follow the Page → SubstackRead the Deep Dives
Longer writing on permits, the Texas Water Plan, reuse technology, and what the science actually says.
Read on Substack →Volunteer
There's a Job Here That Fits You.
Two hours a month is enough to be useful. Put a sign in your yard, staff a table at an event, help read through a permit, or just bring a few neighbors to the next meeting.
Get in Touch
Talk to the Organizer.
Call or write with questions about a permit near you, to book Brent for your POA or civic group, or for press inquiries. If you only want to know where to start, that counts too.