Groundwater Rights, Aquifers, and Drought: What Nobody Tells You

**[00:00:00]** Hello everyone, my name is Armando Perez-Carreno and welcome to the Web Talk Show. Today with us is Kerry Averyt from the Canyon Regional Water Authority. How are you Kerry? Very well, thank you. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. I want to talk about what it is exactly that the Canyon Regional Water Authority does. So, I'll let you give a brief introduction as to what it is and then also how you got to be there because I I find it very interesting and I think our listeners will get a kick out of knowing what happens behind the scenes. Okay. Um, so Canyon Regional Water Authority was formed in 1989. Um, and we're a political subdivision of the state. Uh, so I guess we're quasi governmental. Um, we are have 11 member entities. Um and we sell water wholesale to those entities. Um we acquire uh water rights. Um we have two surface water treatment plants. Uh one in New Bronals, one in San Marcus and then we have one plant that treats groundwater uh east of San Antonio. Um we take that raw water uh we treat it to drinking water standards and then we sell it to our our member entities wholesale who then sell it to their uh retail customers. Um, our member entities uh range from uh nearly halfway to Houston, east of San Antonio along kind of along the I10 corridor um all the way up to east of Austin. Um so a wide wide range among among our member entities. Um and then we also have one uh just wholesale customer who's actually not not a member. Um I have a board of trustees made up of 22 seats. Um each member entity has has two seats on that board and uh I'm the general manager and my duties are to you know run the day-to-day operations of of Canyon Regional. Wow. How did you get into this? So uh by trade I'm a I'm an engineer, a **[00:02:00]** civil engineer. Um and I focused on water resources. Um you know I've been practicing engineering around 25 years now. Um, and it's just kind of through uh my experience. I've worked for uh various public agencies um worked on some pretty large projects uh water and wastewater. And um I was just contacted one day uh to see if I was interested in taking this position. Um general manager is not something that I ever really aspired to be. Um but this is a smaller organization um in terms of of staff and what we do. So, I'm still able to stay at the ground level and be, you know, more involved, not necessarily hands-on, but at least more involved in in, you know, the day-to-day activities. Wow. So, civil engineering. Now, this part, do you still go to like do you go to the plans and and actually walk them and and uh are you part of the actual building process of new ones, etc. or or are you most more mostly now in the managerial part of it? Mostly managerial. Um I love to go out to the facilities anytime I can. Uh unfortunately I'm just can't find a lot of time to do so in the middle of you know I uh and earlier in life I I did a lot of construction and and uh you know I enjoy being out in the field so any opportunity I get I take it. Oh yeah I can imagine I would be the same way. Is the water treatment the same for groundwater versus other types? Uh there are some similarities and some differences. Uh you know there are several different processes that you can use to to treat the water and and and clean it up. Um in our case we do use different processes for our surface water. we use uh membranes is the primary uh primary process that removes **[00:04:00]** all the contaminants. Um whereas at our groundwater treatment plant, we use sand filters uh uh much like the same sand filters you might see at a swimming pool. You know, those just run by gravity. So, you know, it just depends on the quality of the water and what you need to remove from the water. Uh you know, you determine the best process to do that. So, groundwater. I remember going to the caverns, right? And then they had I think we I don't know if we were touring or we were going to one of those concerts, but they at some point they had some some water there and they have some some devices they were measuring things like that and and that got me curious. I was what I was asking. So I see in that area that that general area if you are looking to buy land or a house on a plot of land there many of those places have access to groundwater. So when someone has access to that do they have to have their water treated by a third party? Do they do it themselves? Like how does that work? For private wells, they typically treat the water themselves. Uh it it's usually, you know, pretty simplistic system uh that they can buy to to treat the water. It's usually kind of a almost like a water softener where you just buy it and have it installed. Uh a little bit more to it for the for the groundwater treatment. Uh but uh not a really complex or or complicated system to own and operate. Um now and it it just depends on on the groundwater. Uh you know there's there's brackish groundwater that takes a lot more treatment. Most of the privately owned wells that you see are actually from a freshwater aquafer. Ah and when you say brackish can you explain that in non technical terms for us more? Basically it means it's salt water. um **[00:06:00]** much the same as seawater although the the concentration or the salinity isn't nearly as high. Um and so you have marine desalination and then you have brackish groundwater desalination really. Okay. So when you talk about groundwater, so you get you acquire water rights and this in the bigger scope of things, right? And and then that water gets pumped out via Yes. pipes they take taken to a facility. How does that that part work? You're absolutely right. Um so we have a well field u you know several wells um that draw the water up and and push it to a to a treatment facility uh from there. And and we have tanks that we store raw water in and treated water. And then from there we have pump stations that pump it through distribution pipelines to our member entities. You know, each one has a you know take points along that distribution pipeline. Oh, there's a distribution pipeline. So it's not like you take truckloads. It's that there they there's actually a pipeline that goes to the different places and that it just continuously flows. Yeah. Yeah. There's a pretty vast network of of pipelines for us because it it covers such a long, you know, range. Um, and then, you know, each member, they'll take it from their draw points and and distribute it out to their their retail customers. The water that they get is already treated. That's correct. Yes. So, it's just like just just water that they use for the for their users. Yes, that's correct. just uh you know residences uh you know commercial some of them have industrial users uh so you know it varies uh but they'll have their own storage facilities so they can store the water and their own pump stations and then they'll often have their own treatment facility on site because you have to maintain a a minimum chlorine residual in the water and so if it's you **[00:08:00]** know depending on how long it's stored or in the system they'll have to to boost that chlorine at some point. Interesting. So, they get the water and then they don't necessarily distribute it all as it comes in. They might have some that's stored, distributed, and then based on what requirements of use, that's how they they're they're moving it. Yes, sir. That's correct. And right now, there's so much growth in the area that we're working with the member entities because our infrastructure is really strained. um you know for them to be able to keep up with growth and for us to be able to keep up with their demands. Uh it's really a struggle you know and it's all you know taking all those those components and making them work together. You know you have the the ground storage tanks but then you also have the the elevated storage tanks that maintain the pressure in the system. And so it's uh right now it's it's very challenging to make sure we're meeting all the needs. Well, yeah, I bet. Especially when there's not a lot of rain and and like you said with all the growth. Yeah. Yeah. The growth combined with the unprecedented drought in this region is is really a cause of concern right now. And so our industry is really scrambling to figure out how to develop new water supplies and be able to keep up with the growth and the increased demand. H I when we hear about water a lot of times we immediately think of lakes or some some other type of reservoir but I hadn't thought of groundwater being used as something that's widely available in the sense that not like just for a property but like you're saying for distribution to multiple entities across a vast area. Yeah. And it's a groundwater is a a sensitive topic right now uh because you have the you know **[00:10:00]** concentrated populations um and so the the water purveyors are having to go further and further out to find new sources of water there. There really aren't any new sources of groundwater. Um so the only new sources are either I mean of surface water. So the only new sources are either groundwater or ocean water. Mhm. and groundwater is right now the least expensive to develop and so that's what everybody's looking at. However, in these rural areas, uh, you know, there's some push back. Uh, the the public in these areas want to make sure that they're not losing their water and that their wells aren't going dry. And so, it's really, uh, it's very critical in the industry right now that we find a way to work together um, and and make it and make sure everybody has enough water. That makes a lot of sense. How does someone know is there a way to know that let's say someone has a well in their property but then three properties down someone else has also a well and but they decide to work with uh the company that treats it etc and they they send it out. Is there a way to accurately map whether one well affects another well or is it all are they all from the same sort of source? How how does that work? There is a way. Um so there's there are hydrogeeologists and it's a very specialized uh field um where they can uh create groundwater models and they can you know look at the you know the conditions and they have monitoring wells they can use and they measure draw down and they're very you know it's very predictive and it's uh you know a lot of data goes in and you know like any other model the more data you put in the the better your results. So that's something that they're continually updating. Um the state uh formed groundwater districts uh some time back to help regulate uh the use of the groundwater. And so they employ hydrogeeologists um as well as like a a river or I'm sorry a water authority like myself, you know, **[00:12:00]** other water purveyors. They also use hydro geologists because what we don't want to do is is run anybody else out of water. You know, we we need to bring water in but not to the detriment of others. Mhm. And so right now it's just very uh as I said sensitive. Um there's a lot of misunderstanding and u you know we're we're working together to you know to make sure that we get water in everybody's uh everybody's home. I consider that to be one of the most important jobs on earth right now. No one without water. So yes. Yes. We can't live without water. And you don't realize it until there's a lack of it and there's a lot of waste. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin said, "We know the worth of water when the well runs dry." And right now that's becoming a reality and that we have to make sure that that we, you know, keep in check and and we don't want to cause that. Is water regulated like at a state level? Is that something that's just within state lines? Do zoom companies move water between state lines? How does all that work? Uh it's a there's a lot of politics involved, but basically that so the groundwater belongs to the people. Um whoever owns the land owns the water underneath. What the groundwater district regulates is is how much water is available under your piece of land. And that can fluctuate. Uh you know, they can update their model and you know, make some adjustments there. Um, and that can also vary from one county to the next. Uh, the districts don't necessarily follow county lines, but to some degree they do. And in one county you might have two acre feet per acre, and in the next county you only have one acre per acre. Um, so it is regulated. Um, but each groundwater district u has their own set **[00:14:00]** of rules and and uh you know, governing you know uh parameters that they go by. Um so it's very interesting. Now surface water um belongs to the state. Um Oh and there are you know like uh there are you know river authorities that that control those waters. Um now there is one exception I know of here the the Edwards aquifer the the largest one in this area. Um that is actually under federal jurisdiction. And there's the Edwards Aquifer Authority that was formed, I believe, in the '90s that is actually on a federal level that that is is governed. What can you describe an aquifer? What is it exactly? Because we see the signs everywhere here in town. It's like, oh, start of Edward's aquifer, right? And like discharge zone and like there's these signs, but if you don't know anything about it, you're like, what? What is that? Well, and it's just a a pocket of water where somewhere below there's a restrictive layer that keeps it from from going. And and I I want to uh qualify that I don't have a lot of credentials of groundwater here at all. I mean, I have a knowledge and I'm learning more now that I'm in this area, but um it's just a pocket of water. Um and it's layered like the Edward's aquifer is in limestone formations where it's stored in the pores of the limestone. Um the Ciso aquifer is another very large one. Uh that's the sand aquifer um where the water is just perched in there and you know you drill down to a certain level and and draw it out. Um you know and then in some cases there are aquifers that are layered on each other like there's the you might hear the Ciso Wilcox. Um, so the Ciso are fresh water and then the Willox is salt water. Um, and they're layered on one on top of the other. Um, but in the same, you know, a lot of the same path, same footprint. Wow. And how how extensive are they? **[00:16:00]** Like are they few miles? Yeah, the uh CISO uh starts in Louisiana and goes uh down I believe all the way down south to the you know at some point I'm sure there's a barrier where it stops. Uh uh the Edwarder I believe is 176 miles long. So they can be very vast and have a lot of users. Wow. And so being a federal entity controlled uh aquifer, does that mean I expect it's regulated in a sense where you can't just drill into the ground and get some water? Well, you do have to get a permit. Uh any anytime you drill a well in the state of of Texas, you have to get a permit from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, and it has to be registered. Um, more and more of the groundwater districts are are requiring well owners to register their their privately owned wells um because their mitigations funds set up um and if the well is registered u in in that district and and their well goes dry because of of you know large withdrawals elsewhere, sometimes they can use that mitigation fund to either lower the pump in their well or make it deeper. Wow, that's that's good to know. So, it's it's a good thing to register because you can get the benefits. Absolutely. Yeah. And it helps everyone because now you have more data like you were saying about who's drawing where and when. Yeah. And it helps the groundwater district know, you know, exactly what's being pulled out so they can adjust their model uh and and make it the most accurate. How much can people actually like if if someone has their own private well? We've been talking about private wells a little bit. Is there a restriction how much you can draw for yourself or and if it's different if you are like sort of **[00:18:00]** selling to a third party as well? Right. And so uh for for our wells uh which you know we call production wells um you know they're they're larger. Um they'll have you know like I say a 16inch casing. Um, you know, uh, I've been involved with wells at other agencies that had a 30-in casing, you know, pretty big wells that can pull a lot of water. Um, but you have to get a permit to produce that water. And there will be a limit to the amount that you can pump, you know, a rate that you can pump and then a maximum amount per day that you can pump with that well. And it's related to the amount of draw down a lot of times that that you would cause in in the surrounding area and the impact that you would have. Um, and you want to make sure that you know that that it can recover and you know that you're not you're not drawing it down so far that the whole area goes dry all of a sudden until the aquifer catches up with you. And so that's where you work with the groundwater district. And depending on how much water you're going to produce, you'll have multiple wells. Um I you know we right now have 14 wells at at at that you know facility and they're scattered out over several mile area so that it's not all you know concentrated at one point and are they always pumping or is it staggered? How does that work? It's it's staggered. They're not always pumping. um you know it it depends on the the the you know demands at that point and to keep the the well pump from going on and off all the time or even like for pump stations where you're pushing water out into the system that's where the storage tanks come in so that the pumps aren't you know off and on all the time. You put water in that tank and when it gets to a certain level then they they pump on and fill the tank back up and that's all connected through you know connect communications uh more commonly SCADA uh these days u so that **[00:20:00]** there's all communicating together. Wow. And then for the for the residential wells, uh those are typically considered exempt wells. Uh meaning that they don't have to be you don't have to get a permit to drill them. And we're talking well for a single family residence. Um and they'll have limits as well, you know, much lower. Uh but you know, in some cases it can be as much as, you know, 25,000 gallons per day, which is, you know, far more than the average family uses in a month. Mhm. Okay. Okay. So, you you you have a limit, but not in the sense that, oh, I'm going to be limited in water, more in the don't don't take advantage of it and start selling it from your property. Right. Right. Yeah. And then, you know, we have uh you know, we're permitted to produce so many acre feet per year of water and you know, regardless of you know, we could you know, we can use it however we want as long as we don't exceed those rates. But at the end of the year, we can exceed that amount. Oh, okay. So, I bet there's a lot of planning involved in just like figuring out from where you draw and at what times and then how much you keep and then how much you need to plan in advance so that you have enough to meet the quota but not go over it, but not to have less. Yeah. You don't want to pay for water that you're not going to need. Uh but you want to make sure you have plenty for your customers. Wow. So yeah, a lot of planning and and looking at, you know, future population growth and and planning for the future. You know, we're, you know, on that scale, you're talking about, you know, tens of thousands of acre feet of water that you have to acquire to meet your future needs. And so it's, you know, as I I said before, it's kind of challenging right now to find those new water supplies and to be able to afford the infrastructure to produce them. Well, I I expect it's very expensive. How How do the the pumping **[00:22:00]** system work? Like, how do you get water from one of these locations all the way to miles and miles away? How how does that system work? Well, it's just uh you know, it's pipelines uh just a network. You know, the wells will push into the collection piping. Um, and you know, depending on how far that that water has to go, sometimes you have to put in an additional booster station with a tank um for, you know, basically a relay station. Um, in our case, you know, we're not that far away, but some water pipelines can be, you know, tens or or even 100 miles long or more. uh you know the the San Antonio water system uh they have one pipeline that's 130 mi long uh where they bring water down south to San Antonio. Wow. And you talked about the like the high towers, the reservoirs, the the ones that are high above those are used for pressure. You were saying primarily uh they maintain the pressure in the in the area that they're in. Um and they also in times of emergency um they can provide water you know because they'll they'll have some water storage. The TCQ requires a minimum uh number of gallons of storage per connection for you know that that's tied to that tank. Um and so that way during outages that that provides a little bit more water and also maintains pressure uh in the system. And does every I don't know little desert the town or region have to have one of those because we see them as you're driving through towns, right? You always see them. Is that is that something that that you need to have in order for for the water system to work in that location? Yeah. For for a public water supply, yes. Uh you know, for private wells, no. **[00:24:00]** Um, there's another means. It's called a hydronneumatic tank. And it's a tank that's partially filled with water and also partially filled with air. And you put a compressor on there that will compress that air and put pressure in the tank to to push the water out. Um, those can be used on a temporary measure uh for public water supplies and of course they're much larger u but not for permanent uh use. uh at some point you have to put in the elevated storage to to maintain that pressure. Interesting. And and why do some places especially in residential areas have much lower pressure than others just because they might there might be far or because there are many connections that spread out from one point sometimes. And and it also has to do especially in this area where we kind of have the rolling topography kind of depends on where you're at in that pressure system. Um, and when you get in a city, uh, you know, like New Bronuls or or San Marcos or San Antonio, um, where there's a lot of, you know, rolling topography, um, they'll have different pressure planes and they're all separated basically by division valves to maintain their their own pressure. But if you're at a a low point uh, in that pressure plane, then you're going to have higher pressure. But if you're at a much higher point, then your pressure is going to be less. Well, that's interesting. I hadn't thought of the of the elevation because I I've seen even very close by like maybe 2 miles away where one property has extreme pressure like 110 or something and and if your pressure reducing valve doesn't work, you're breaking everything, right? Uh whereas somewhere that's very close by has like 40 PSI and Yeah. like what right there. Yeah. And some in some areas. Yeah. They have to put an additional pressure reducing valve on their, you know, on **[00:26:00]** their service line if they're very low in the in that area. And then the, you know, the water systems are required to maintain a minimum pressure in their system. uh if they fall below that pressure, that's when they have to put out a boil water notice and they have to, you know, disinfect because you're you're at a very high risk for contamination entering your system. Oh, and that's what happened in the freeze, right, when we had the freeze a few years ago. Um they they they they sent that multiple times, right? Because the was it because the water pressure was low enough that that this could happen? Yeah, I believe you're right. Uh there were some areas where they had to send out the boil water notice. Um that is not something that that is good for a water company to send out. Even if it's through, you know, no fault of their own. If it's force majour, you still you never want to have to send out a boil water notice. Uh it's just not a good thing. And is that because what makes it more likely to get contaminants that that instead of the water flowing, it's there's there's space for things to Yeah. There's the potential for water to enter the system, you know, if there's not enough pressure pushing out. uh you're at a much higher risk of, you know, if there's a um something as simple as a a garden hose bib in a in somebody's front yard could potentially draw contaminants into the system that could get out into the main. Oh, right. Because the main water is already clean and treated like like you do. And then and so it's assumed that the water in the pipe is always treated or clean and but if then something like this happens and you don't have those what are they called? Are they like backflow pre backflow preventers then then the water can come in to the actual main and contaminate the rest of **[00:28:00]** the water. Yes. And once it gets in there, then you have to do a very, you know, you have to cast a wide net to make sure that you're capturing any of the potential, you know, contaminated areas. And is that what how do they treat it? Do they add chlorine to the system or or they just have to wait for it to Yeah. um they would and I've never been directly involved in this but they you'd have to do a lot of sampling and then if you actually find some contamination um then you would probably you know when you put a new main into into service you you do what's called supercllorination and you put a very concentrated amount of of chlorine in there to disinfect it and then you flush it out. Um if if they detect any contaminants they would have to perform that on on that part of the of the system. Wow. You mentioned that saltwater is another possibility, but it it's it's more expensive than groundwater. Why is that? Uh because it takes a lot more to treat it and remove the contaminants from the water. Um and you also with with uh you know saltwater de uh desalination you have a lot more waste stream a lot more byproduct it's costly to to mitigate um you know that's uh one of the environmental concerns with doing um ocean water desalination is that that waist stream and if they discharge it back into the ocean it can actually create a dead zone uh where nothing can live because it's just too concentrated. Oh, so sorry. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say that um also the you know the the energy costs uh are a lot higher for that type of treatment um as opposed to regular uh **[00:30:00]** membranes. Uh the most common process is reverse osmosis osmosis and it's a lot more energy intensive to to clean the water that way. So it's it's viable. It's just expensive to do. Yeah. And it's it's you know like most uh things it's an economy of scale. Um as as more and more uh use of it uh you know comes comes around there will be more efficient ways to treat the water. Um, you I know there are some companies right now that are looking at at zero liquid discharge, which from an environmental uh perspective is a is a huge win, but also uh from the cost, if they can figure out a way to make that efficient, then it'll save a lot of money in the long run. You know, water will never be too expensive to afford. Uh uh you know, we we as an industry, you know, like with any other infrastructure, the first question you ask is, can we afford it? And we have to get rid of that and start having this philosophy of of we can't not afford it because we have to have it. Yes, that's very well put. the the I think the problem lies in having it so readily available and so it doesn't induce the need or the mental need to build new things cuz it's there right until you really need it and then that case then you start building things for it right I I remember when I was a kid and I learned about reverse osmosis. I was like, "Oh, well, there can't be any more drought or anything cuz you could just do that." But then you don't really think about everything else like you were saying, the cost, the energy, transporting and all that. Like it is still Yeah, it is a possibility, but yeah, it's not as easy as just boiling the water and and extracting it, right? **[00:32:00]** Yeah. And that's that's one of the biggest struggles also is just the financing this new infrastructure. Uh you know your average utility that they don't have the money on hand to you know to pay for that. And so it's getting the funding uh and and you know then being able to set up a structure where you're able to to you know finance the debt and and be able to repay that debt over time. And uh it's uh you know with rising costs it's it's getting harder and harder to do that. Who pays for all this? Like if you see a company like Sauce, is SAS part of the city itself? Is it a private company? Is it a semi-private company? Is it how does how does how do these entities work? So the the saws is uh they're under a charter. Um but they're part of the city of San Antonio but they operate under a separate charter and so they ultimately their budget uh you know high level uh decisions like that are approved by the city council u and it varies uh several of my member entities are special utility districts um where that you know that's all they do is is water or perhaps waste water and recycle water. um some are municipalities um where you know the municipality still owns and operates all of the you know the water distribution network. So it varies uh you know from entity to entity. There are some private water purveyors and there's a we're seeing a rise in you know uh firms that want to come in and just develop water supply and and then sell it and you know and that's a for-profit venture. Um, so that's, you know, that's a whole different different side of the coin now that we're seeing a rise in because the the value of water is increasing. That's interesting. How how does that **[00:34:00]** work? Because it's like I've seen like in Dallas and other cities, there's more than one uh electric company, right? Like how does that work? Especially with water because I expect there's not a lot of pipes. It's like there's one source to get to the homes. So, how how can something like that actually exist? Well, now when it comes to sending the water out to the retail customers, um they have what's called a CCN area, a certificate of convenience and necessity. And it's basically it means, okay, it makes sense for you to, you know, serve these customers. And, you know, when you have uh new customers in your CCN, uh you're you're basically you're required to provide that water service to them. And um so you can't get that change without a legal action being taken uh as far as reducing or expanding your CCN. You know, some uh some municipalities that are growing uh you know, their their water companies, whether it be part of the of the of the city or a separate company, you know, they have to apply to expand their CCN to you know, meet the new customers needs. Um you know now the the private ventures I think mostly are in are looking at doing wholesale you know water as opposed to retail where they would approach a company like Canyon Regional and say hey I'm developing this project you know do you want to buy water from me and they would just sell it to us at a rate you know either treated or untreated and then we would turn around and and convey it to our customers. Interesting. Yeah. So, at a higher level, that's that's where it would happen. Yeah. That I don't have any ventures like that ongoing right now, but I I just know that that's something that seems to be on the rise. Interesting. Well, yeah, it makes sense if someone can find a better way or a cheaper way to do it and resell. At the **[00:36:00]** end of the day, you're just Yeah, it's leverage, right? Interesting. Wow. What you mentioned a few times about how it's getting harder and harder to find water sources and and there's scarcity especially uh when there's drought. So what what can people do to be mindful of this? Sometimes we we get the notice and the things I think like saw does they send an email that says you're doing great and they compare you to the similar homes. I I like that because it sort of gifies it in a way where you're like, "Oo, I did better this time or or I'm like completely worse than everyone else or whatever, right?" You see you see that and it puts it in in context, I think. Um is is there anything that you've seen that that does work and and sort of bring it down to earth to people's minds to see like, yeah, maybe you shouldn't be running your hose just just for fun or or cleaning the driveway or whatever. And it really it's it's you know public outreach and raising the awareness. Um and you know raising the awareness that something as simple as turning off the faucet while you're brushing your teeth. You know if everybody does that you know that's has a really significant impact on on reducing the water consumption. You know uh everybody likes to have a nice pretty lawn. Uh you know that's that's of course one of the biggest uses of water that that we could reduce. Um, and uh, you know, if if we can get everybody to to join in and just minimize that. You know, I you know, I people like me, we we don't really water our lawns. I might get out there a couple times a summer and do it by hand. Um, but I don't expect everybody to let their their lawn go brown. Um, but I think if you do it responsibly, you know, you can still still be able to do it. Um, you know, one one of the most effective ways that that I think is out there any anytime you want the general **[00:38:00]** public to subscribe to something new like that conservation or recycling, what you do is you go to the to the schools, you go to the elementarymentaries and you get the children to subscribe and they'll shame their parents into into joining in. Uh, it's a it's a good one. Yes. Yeah. Uh it really uh you know I I you had you have children um you know if your child comes home from school and says hey we we got to start conserving water they'll make sure you do it you know and it's really actually very effective method to to spread the word you know I'm glad you touched on that. It's a very good point. There there's this book that our daughter got for for Peipa the dog um from Sauce. It's this little like like a little comic book if you can imagine little thing and it tells the story of this dog real life that uh fell into one of the I don't know what the name of it is but they one of the holes was open and it fell in because it was exploring and so then the sauce team came and and got her out with the little robot right so they so they they sort of attracted him and and so but then they made this story um which is really neat because the dog falls in and then the robot comes comes and and says like, "Hey, come here. It's okay." And and then the dog's like, "What? Like, what is what is this sticking to my feet?" And then and then the robot's like, "Oh, it when oil is dropped through the drain, it then clogs it turns into this sort of mush and and that's that blocks our pipes and we have to come in and clean them because otherwise the water gets stuck, right?" And then, oh, what are these? And then like, oh, wipes. If you throw wipes down the toilet, then they get stuck here and they make these piles. So it explains it in a simple way. But then when I read that I was like, "Oh, that's why you don't throw like like some of the things that you know, right? Once it's explained like in a way for a child, sometimes it makes more sense. You're like, "Oh, I'm never going to throw oil down the drain again, **[00:40:00]** right?" So, yeah, it's a great it's a great uh it's a great point. I think more people should do it. Even apart from the entities now that that so many people are being creative and creating these stories and books and things like that like if you can put in awareness into these in a way like you were saying that the kids can then tell the parents. Yeah, that's a that's a great that's a great response. Yeah, I've I've given a lot of presentations to to school children ranging from elementary up actually to college classes and and yeah, it's interesting that the younger ones uh that can be an effective tool to use when you want to, you know, spread the word to the public. That's amazing. Well, Kerry, this has been really insightful. I had no idea that this was actually a thing like companies doing wholesale water to different entities and that the groundwater was such an important part of the whole system. I I really had no idea. I really appreciate you coming on the show and talking about it. Is there if I would ask you what you would recommend to people to just take home with, right? uh so that so that they they can do a better job of uh keeping our water supply. Um what would that be? Um stay aware uh of what's going on uh you know especially at the state level um as far as water's concerned. Um the future water supply is a a big concern uh even for the larger organizations and municipalities. And so be aware and and make sure that you're standing up for your rights and make sure that you're in a position to where you're always going to have plenty of clean, safe, affordable drinking water. Thank you so much, Kerry. If everyone wants to learn more about the Canyon Regional Water Authority and related entities, uh how how can they find more **[00:42:00]** information? Uh ask they can uh look at our website uh or they can uh call us. Um, I I'll be glad to talk to anybody who who would like to hear more information. Uh, our main phone number is 8306090543. Excellent. Great. Thank you so much, Kerry. I'll put that in the show notes as well as the website so people can find you. And again, I really appreciate you coming on the show. And it was my pleasure. Thanks so much. Thank you. Bye-bye.