BEE CAVE, Texas — It was a packed house at the Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District's Mirasol Springs underground permit hearing on Monday. Dozens of residents, business owners and recreational users of the Pedernales River and streams near the proposed Mirasol Springs development spoke against the current plan.
The development is set to be built on 1,400 acres of land near Hamilton Pool, near the Travis County and Hays County line. On the resort property, the plan calls for a luxury hotel, 73 guest cottages, spa, restaurants, an event center, a pool and a farm. There would also be 30 resort residences and 41 single-family homes.
During the hearing, residents, people who frequent the area for recreational use and business owners said they are concerned about over-pumping and the impacts on the endangered species in the water. They said the community fears the development will lower river levels at the already drought-stricken Pedernales River and impact flow at near by springs, Hamilton Pool and even Lake Travis, which provides drinking water to Austin. They also worry property values could be reduced and recreational opportunities would be lost.
The Save the Pedernales group has been pushing for change.
"I do worry about the drought and water level getting pumped so low it could affect water quality and cause algae blooms, making the water unsafe to swim," one resident said.
The project developers said they’ve made a lot of changes to their original plan based off of concerns from the public. They’re requiring rainwater collection, recycling wastewater and banning individual septic systems and fertilizer chemicals, as well as not discharging into nearby waterways, among other things. They said about 1,000 acres, or 70%, of the land will be dedicated to what they call "conservation easement," meaning they won’t develop that portion beyond a certain point.
They also say a big part of their mission is to educate, restore the delicate land and do research at the University of Texas biodiversity field station that will be built on the property.
Mirasol CEO Steve Winn said in order to do that, they need the capital coming from the resort.
"We want to figure out how to remediate and regenerate the land," Winn said. "Many of the projects that UT will be working on are focused on that concept. If you get a biodiverse land, you're going to capture more carbon from the atmosphere, and that's the the long term goal."
Winn also said they plan to put back the water they take out. This is going to be a long process with more permit hearings to come.
Because part of this plan is in Hays County, the groundwater district there has to have a meeting about it, too. That meeting will happen on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m. at the Sunset Canyon Baptist Church multi-purpose room in the Family Life Center Building, located at 4000 U.S. 290 West in Dripping Springs.
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