NewsDrop-April-2024

GENERAL MANAGER’S MESSAGE

By: Roland Ruiz General Manager

BUT AT THE MOST BASIC LEVEL STEWARDSHIP IS MANAGING OR TAKING CARE OF SOMETHING ON BEHALF OF SOMEONE ELSE OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS. STEWARDSHIP CAN MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE

Indigenous peoples were probably the first stewards of the Edwards as waters emanating from the aquifer fed springs and streams, providing resources from which they drew water for their communities. For generations, farmers too have known the value of stewardship, relying on the Edwards to raise crops in a semi-arid climate to sustain the food supply of their families and of this region. As population growth turned rural areas into urban areas over the 20th century, municipalities also came to value stewardship to protect economic investment and sustain community health and well-being by responsibly using resources. AT THE CORE OF OUR MISSION, THAT’S WHAT WE DO AT THE EAA.

Today, the EAA stewardship mission to man age, enhance, and protect the Edwards Aquifer system continues to evolve. The next genera tion vision of aquifer stewardship is grounded on the importance of protecting and enhancing the quantity and quality of water recharging and moving through the Edwards for everyone’s bene fit. This stewardship approach is multi-faceted as

demonstrated within the pages of this newsletter. Examples include efficient irrigation practices in agriculture; landscape and soil restoration, espe cially across the vast watershed to the system; addressing abandoned wells to prevent the intru sion of pollutants into the aquifer; and evaluating the effects of an increasingly variable climate on the future availability of our water resources.

In the end, perhaps it was author and former UK government official Michael Barber who put it most succinctly when he said, “Stewardship is leaving a system better than you found it.” For us, leaving the system better than we found it means our legacy will be an aquifer that is sustainable as a water supply for all uses and users for gener ations to come.

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