Posted Tuesday, October 18, 2011 2:00 am

While almost everyone will agree we need to ensure our water supply, not everyone can agree that there is a water problem in Gonzales County.

This lack of agreement was the backdrop for the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District’s Tuesday night meeting.

Board members Emmet Baker, Link Benson, Kurt Trammell and Bruce Patteson, along with Manager Greg Sengelmann, were treated to a more participative, if not erratic, version of the public comments portion than in past meetings.

Craig Hines with Canyon Regional Water Authority (CRWA) addressed the board on some comments made by Pat Rosato in reference to water restrictions. To be sure, he does not agree with Rosato.

“He has implied that there are no restrictions on customers of Canyon Regional while people in Gonzales are running out of water,” Hines said. “This is not true and, as a matter of fact, CRWA is using all of its other water sources as a primary supply.”

Hines said Rosato claims that people are re-drilling wells in the Nixon Smiley area, and requested Rosato identify those people and say why they have not made a claim under the mitigation fund that the out-of-county water providers have funded.

“Is Mr. Rosato speaking about the effort to mitigate wells before there is a problem, and finding wells and fixing them before there is a need?” Hines asked. “If this is the fact, then should it not be a positive thing instead of a negative that Mr. Rosato has implied? CRWA individually has worked with the city of Smiley to ensure their water supply, as a good neighbor.

“Mr. Rosato also stated that Kurt Trammel has voted for CRWA when the record clearly will show he has abstained in any matter regarding CRWA,” Hines said.

“Mr. Rosato’s statements clearly indicate that, in his opinion, that if you lease or sell water from property, you have no right to have representation on the district board or hold a position on the board,” Hines said. “This would seem to be a prejudice to the opinion that people should be able to use the water under their property as they see fit and not be able to have representation on a regulatory board with oversight to that use.

“The fact that current board members have defended the right to use your property as landowners in Gonzales County, including their own, seems to be a mischaracterization of their actions,” he added.

“Mr. Rosato has indicated in his articles that somehow the water supply is inadequate to supply both the local needs and those who are now using it outside of the county,” Hines continued. “He uses examples of lakes falling in various parts of the state that have nothing to do with the supply of water in Gonzales County.”

Hines said that he would like to challenge those statements and ask for some facts regarding Gonzales County.

“I challenge his remarks that there really is a water supply problem and that the Board of the Groundwater District has really failed to react to some crisis,” Hines concluded.

Rosato then approached the board to make his statement, but not before being asked to state his full name by Baker.

“My name is Patrick Anthony Rosato,” he said. “My friend with Canyon Regional here just said no water levels were down in Lake Gonzales (H-4). That’s not what the residents out there tell me. I know people who live out there, and they’re telling me different.”

“Can you name these people?” Baker asked. “We need to know who you’re talking about. Don’t just say ‘people’.”

Rosato did not give any names, but reiterated that the people of Gonzales County know that the lake’s water levels are down, and that he personally knows because he frequently checks the lake.

Two board members then said they had places out on the lake, and that there was no drop in the water level.

“People’s wells are being mitigated,” Rosato continued. “The reason for this is because of the drawdown of the water. That’s the whole point of the article (I wrote). So don’t tell me I’m hop scotching around making rash statements.

“Water levels all over the county are down,” Rosato said. “There are wells that aren’t even being mitigated that are down. They’re not down below where they can pump, but they’re down.”

Rosato then said Sengelmann wrote a newspaper article “in retaliation to” the article he had written, and took exception to it.

“I read the whole thing three times, and it didn’t say anything,” he said. “It gave water levels, but didn’t solve anything. “

Rosato then concluded his rebuttal by clarifying that he wasn’t specifically addressing CRWA, but was talking mostly about the Schertz-Seguin water situation.