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HABITAT CONSERVATION PLAN Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program The Aquifer is a unique groundwater resource, extending 180 miles from Brackettville in Kinney County, Texas, to Kyle in Hays County, Texas. (Figure 1-1). It is the primary source of drinking water for over two million people in south-central Texas and serves the domestic, livestock, irrigation, industrial, municipal, and recreational needs of the area. The Aquifer is the source of the two largest springs remaining in Texas -- the San Marcos and the Comal springs. These springs are the headwaters of the San Marcos and Comal rivers, which are tributaries to the Guadalupe River. Eight species that depend directly on water in or discharged from the Aquifer are federally-listed as threatened or endangered. These species include fountain darter (Etheostoma fonticola), San Marcos salamander (Eurycea nana), San Marcos gambusia (Gambusia georgei), Texas blind salamander (Eurycea [formerly Typhlomolge] rathbuni), Peck's cave amphipod (Stygobromus pecki), Comal Springs dryopid beetle (Stygoparnus comalensis), Comal Springs riffle beetle (Heterelmis comalensis), and Texas wild rice (Zizania texana). The primary threat to these Aquifer-dependent species is the intermittent loss of habitat from reduced springflows. Springflow loss is the combined result of naturally fluctuating rainfall patterns, natural discharges at other springs, and regional pumping and drawdown of the Aquifer. In 1991, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit under the ESA that resulted ultimately in the creation of the EAA. The Texas Legislature directed the EAA to regulate, among other things, pumping from the Aquifer, to implement critical period management restrictions, and to pursue a program to ensure that the continuous minimum springflows of the Comal Springs and the San Marcos Springs are maintained to protect endangered and threatened species to the extent required by federal law . . . . (EAA Act § 1.14(h)). A workable plan for the protection for the federally-listed species has been ers as set out in this HCP. In the fall of 2006, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) brought together stakeholders from throughout the region to participate in a collaborative process to develop a plan to contribute to the recovery of federally listed species dependent on the Aquifer. This process is referred to as the EARIP. In May 2007, the Texas Legislature codified the EARIP in state law and directed the EAA and certain other state agencies, local units of government, and other stakeholders to participate in the EARIP and to prepare a USFWS-approved plan by 2012 for managing the Aquifer to preserve the federally-listed species. The Legislature directed that the plan must include, among other things, recommendations regarding withdrawal adjustments during critical periods that ensure that federally-listed species associated with the Aquifer will be protected. 1.1.3 Legislative Requirements 1 In 1993, the Texas Legislature passed the Edwards Aquifer Authority Act (EAA Act) which, among other things, created the EAA. Although the EAA Act was passed in 1993, litigation delayed agency start-up for three years, until 1996. The general intent of the EAA Act was to 1 rd Act of May 30, 1993, 73 Leg., R.S., ch 626, 1993, Tex. Gen. Laws 2350, as amended. 1-2