Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt was nice enough to respond to my email about the Tecolote Farm water crisis. (In fact, she was the only one out of the five to do so.) She said that “we are all to blame.” This probably has some truth to it: Austinites want inexpensive housing, residential developers descend on outlying areas, utilities are put in place to support new construction. People get cheap homes (good), developers make money (good), Austin increases it’s tax base and bills for utilities (good) and Tecolote’s well goes dry from increased water table use (bad). There were 10 high-capacity commercial pumps installed in the area, that is why the well went dry. When Sarah said “all to blame”, I guess she was wrong on one count. I don’t think we can blame Tecolote Farm. That being said, water in Texas has always been a touchy subject. Usually, the one with the deepest well (or fastest pumps) wins.