How Should Hays County Manage Growth?
By Rob D’Amico Erin Foster has had her share of water problems at her northern Hays County home. One of her wells ran dry, and another gave her son a serious case of dysentery. “That’s how I got concerned about water issues,” Foster says over a plate of barbecue from the Salt Lick, Hays County’s most famous eatery. She goes on to explain how living in the dry landscape outside of Austin’s chaotic world of traffic and strip malls is peaceful and inspiring. Sure, neighbors sometimes have to borrow water from each other’s spigots and shower at health clubs when the wells run dry. “There’s a lot of downsides as well,” she says. So it may seem a bit strange that Foster is the stone in the shoe for the Lower Colorado River Authority’s plans to run a water pipeline into Hays County. The $17.5 million pipeline, which is scheduled for construction in January, would run from just south of the Village of Bee Cave on Highway 71 to Dripping Springs along U.S. 290, and could potentially serve thousa
