San Marcos — When Houston-area developer Gordon Hall pitched his plan for the San Marcos River Ranch to residents at Martindale’s city hall last August, the San Marcos River right across the street was going strong. The San Marcos Springs, which feed it, were flowing at the rate of 418 cubic feet per second and the Blanco River was contributing too.

But when construction started June 18 on what will be a 200-acre gated community of high-end homes with two “recreational” lakes, springflow was only 135 cfs and the Blanco River’s contribution was almost nonexistent.

Hall, president of LSF Development Corporation of League City, admits the lack of rainfall and searing temperatures have crimped the project’s schedule, but insisted he’s playing everything by the books and “bending over backwards” to be a good neighbor in the process.

He also acknowledged problems getting water to the site. When he purchased the tract, which encompasses part of the old Harper Ranch, Hall also acquired the ranch’s water right — 150 acre-feet of water annually — and secured approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to amend the permit for recreational usage.

But the permit is conditional, allowing Hall to pump river water only when the US Geological Service river gauge at Luling shows a flow of 130 cfs or better.

And that’s happened rarely this summer. Since River Ranch construction began, the Luling gauge has topped the 130 mark for only two periods, less than 24 hours July 9 and 10 and almost 48 hours July 24-26.

Hall said on Friday that his engineers did extensive research and modeling prior to beginning construction on the two lakes. “You have to prove you have a plan that will keep it reasonably usable” for future residents of the project, he said.

Hall said the conclusion of the reservoir modeling and simulation was that “with the water we’ve got and the way the river works, in all but the most extreme of periods we’d be covered for our intended use.”

However, that “extreme of periods” occurred right off the bat.

With river flow too low to pump, Hall began in late June buying approximately 150,000 gallons of “construction” water daily from the Martindale Water Supply Corporation (MWSC).

But by late July, that draw was jeopardizing the MWSC’s system, said manager Steven Fonville.

“It became apparent we couldn’t sustain that rate, Fonville said. Typically, Martindale uses between 300,000 and 400,000 gallons a day.

Fonville said the water system relies both on wells with a total capacity of 475,000 gallons per day and additional supplies from the Hays Caldwell Water Project amounting to 378,267 gallons. That totals up to 853,267 gallons; however, there’s only a six-inch line bringing water from Hays Caldwell and Fonville said that is inadequate to supply the river ranch construction site.

“If our little plant had failed for any reason,” Fonville said, it would have completely drained one of the system’s two water towers.

Hall said the project is now getting its construction water from two wells dug at the project site. He said an inspector from the TCEQ that visited the site last week told him the project and well “were in compliance” with his permit.

However, state authorities said differently.

“There was a report that the developers were pumping water out of the river without permits,” said Lamarriol Smith of the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority. “GBRA sent a staff person there to investigate the report and that investigation is ongoing,” she said, with the watermaster from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality heading up the probe.

TCEQ spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said no ruling has yet been made, as the agency is awaiting reports to see if the well is pulling groundwater or river water.

Hall said about half the project’s homesites have already been contracted for sale and he still expects home construction to start sometime in the fall. “It’s been so dry our plans have been pushed back a month or so. We did not make nearly the progress in late June and July that we wanted to.”

Hall said the lakes that are a key selling point won’t be filled with pumped water. “We will fill these lakes the way most lakes are filled,” he said, “by catching the winter and spring rains.”

He said he’s understands it “doesn’t look right or feel right” for MWSC customers already under Stage Two water restrictions to see water being slung on the ground for dust control at the construction site but added “you’ve got to keep the dust down somehow” and said using well water made more sense. “It’s not really right to use processed drinking water for dust control.”

He stressed that he or the project “would never do anything to harm” the San Marcos River. “The river is why we bought out there. We paid a heck of a premium. Protection is as important to us as to anyone alive.”

Some homes in the project will have direct river access but many more will be built around the two lakes. Hall said the area will be vegetated and the lakes will be stocked with fish and other marine life.

He expects the lakes to fluctuate seasonally. They will be for the exclusive use of residents and their guests. Jet skies and outboard motor boats will be banned; but the use of boats with inboard engines and “underwater exhaust” will be allowed.

For more on the project, visit www.sanmarcosriverranch.com