NewsDrop-June-2025

CRITICAL PERIOD MANAGEMENT (CPM)

HOW WAS IT CREATED?

By: Ann-Margaret Gonzalez Senior Public Affairs Administrator

On May 28, 2007, the EAA Act was amended by the 80th Texas Legislature and increased the per mitted pumping cap to 572,000 acre-feet annually, and the triggers for each stage of CPM changed to be implemented sooner and at higher aquifer lev els. It also allowed for irrigators to finish out crops already planted prior to the implementation of CPM without regard to increased permit reductions due to CPM. This exemption was inserted into EAA Rules resulting in the creation of the Notice of Intent to Finish Out a Crop Program and implemented for the first time in 2008.

Then on February 14, 2012, the EAA Board of Directors voted to amend the CPM Plan to include the new emergency Stage 5. This implementation of Stage 5 included a reduction of 44% to munici pal, industrial and irrigation permit holders in both pools of the Edwards Aquifer who are authorized to withdraw more than 3 acre-feet per year. Stage 5 became effective on March 18, 2013, when the Incidental Take Permit was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan.

THE SUCCESS STORY OF THE EAA CRITICAL PERIOD MANAGEMENT PLAN MANAGING THROUGH DROUGHT

HOW HAS CPM MADE A DIFFERENCE?

WHAT IS THE EAA CRITICAL PERIOD MANAGEMENT PLAN?

The CPM Plan is the agency’s only regulatory program that has made a big impact in water con servation by taking hundreds of acre feet of water off the table throughout the years when aquifer conditions have declined and drought is present. The most recent drought began in 2022, when rainfall was the second lowest on record for San Antonio. Paul Bertetti, EAA Senior Director for Aquifer Science Research & Modeling, shared “2022 was very dry and started a significant drought. Water levels have dropped and remained low for the past 40 months.” This past month, on May 23, 2025, the EAA made its first Stage 5 declaration for the San Antonio Pool, which impacted permit holders in Medina, Bexar, and parts of Atascosa, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal, and Hays counties. However, this reduction at the 44% (see figure 2) was calculated based on the numbers of days the pool remained in Stage 5 or any other stage in which CPM is in effect. Shortly after this declaration, the San Antonio Pool went into Stage 4 (May 29, 2025) and as of June 9, 2025 this pool is in Stage 3. The EAA encourages residents and businesses who receive their water from a public water system to follow their respective water providers’ directives regarding water use practices. The EAA does not enforce lawn watering activities or other general water limitations beyond the curtailment of withdrawals from the Edwards Aquifer. Any enforcement of such activities or limitations is enforced by a municipality. The EAA does not regulate the general public but instead regulates Edwards well owners with withdrawal permits authorizing their right to pump from the aquifer.

The Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) Critical Period Man agement (CPM) Plan helps sustain aquifer and springflow levels during drought. This temporary reduction applies to permit holders across the EAA jurisdiction and is divided into different sets of stage reductions for the Uvalde Pool

and the San Antonio Pool. The CPM Plan reduces the autho rized withdrawal amounts of Edwards groundwater permit holders, which slows the rate of decline in aquifer levels and spring discharges until it rains, and the aquifer can recharge once more.

Figure 2. San Antonio Pool and Uvalde Pool Reductions for EAA CPM.

Learn about the aquifer conditions we track for the San Antonio Pool and the Uvalde Pool: https://youtu.be/EtTQkEqjV5c?si=1dd0MlWduN2eSmyc

Figure 1. Edwards Aquifer System Map

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