Wildflower Center taps Trinity Aquifer

Looking to wean itself off municipal water, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center approached the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District for a pumping permit in March. The aquifer district approved the 6.7 million gallon-per-year permit Thursday night, waiving a rule disallowing new pumping to start under drought conditions for the Wildflower Center. Though the district doesn’t allow new firm-yield permits on the Edwards Aquifer, the Wildflower Center’s permit is for an existing Middle Trinity Aquifer well. The district advertises the Trinity as an alternative to the Edwards, and only 32 percent of that aquifer is allocated through permits (with the new permit, 133 million gallons allocated versus an estimated 419 million gallons of available groundwater). The permit is exclusively for irrigation.