The Price of a Sustainable Environment

In December 1997, the Edwards Aquifer Authority conducted a series of public hearings in five south Texas communities. It wanted to know what people thought about proposed new rules governing withdrawals from the region’s large aquifer. Years of excessive pumping had seriously lowered groundwater tables, threatening the viability of farms, urban areas, and federally protected wildlife species. So evident had the problem become that nearly everyone accepted the need both for pumping limits a...