Oil Exec Wants to Redirect Austin’s Drinking Water For His Private Lake

The Llano River in Junction, Texas (Photo by Nicolas Henderson / CC by-SA 2.0)

A multimillionaire oil executive, Greg Garland, is trying to dam the South Llano River – a major tributary into the Highland Lakes, which supply Austin’s drinking water – all for his private 5-acre lake larger than Barton Springs.

Last week at a public hearing in Rocksprings, around 200 residents of Llano and Edwards counties spoke against the draft Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) permit that would impound 12.02 acre-feet of water “for recreational purposes.”

Although the draft permit says Garland can’t store water during low-flow conditions, last year, commissioners from Llano, Mason, and Kimble counties all passed resolutions asking TCEQ to deny the permit altogether, in light of the severe drought. Stakeholders represented by the Llano River Watershed Alliance (LWRA) have started a petition with almost 5,000 signatures warning that the proposal sets a dangerous precedent for more private dams to interrupt the already fragile flow of the river, which many rely on for drinking water.

Lower Colorado River Authority data shows zero flow in all major tributaries into the Highland Lakes except the Llano. LWRA’s Glen Coleman says even though the amount of water requested “is not trivial, the real fear is the precedent set. If a wealthy landowner is able to impound a Texas river for his vanity project, [it] would be a paradigm shift for TCEQ and it’s happening upstream of Austin’s water supply.”

Since Garland applied for the permit in 2018, he has also obtained a 10-year contract with the LCRA to purchase 16 acre-feet of water per year (that’s roughly eight Deep Eddys of water per year). In recent years, Garland has donated $10,000 to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign, and Phillips 66 – the oil company that Garland sits on the board of – has donated more than $50,000. Abbott appoints the three TCEQ commissioners that will decide this permit.

A date for the next public hearing has not yet been set.