The Middle Trinity Groundwater Conservation District voted Thursday, Jan. 16 at its monthly board meeting to appoint former director Ed Dittfurth to fulfill the rest of Erath director Jerry Hinshaw’s term.
Dittfurth is the lead pastor of cornerstone, an assistant professor at Tarleton and has a Bachelor’s of Science in hydrology.
The vote was carried unanimously with WB Maples and Butch Ronnie absent from the meeting. The directors present also approved several contracts including Freese & Nichols whohandlestaxauthorization work occasionally for the district and attorney Ty Embrey to once again represent the district in the legislative session and report on pertinent information. The board also voted to continue sponsorship of the 4-H Water Ambassadorship program which saw ambassadors visiting the district’s Ditch water discovery center as part of their prominent sites throughout the state. MTGCD General Manager Patrick Wagner reported Hico’s Greenhouse Nature School visited the Ditch recently and there are plans to develop more programs for the site’s usage.
MTGCD is the governing body responsible for cataloguing well registration, ensuring the proper installation of wells and upholding the conservation of groundwater within the district’s member counties (Erath, Comanche, Bosque and Coryell).
In regular reports, Wagner said utilities like the Palmer Drought Severity Index and Crop Moisture Index indicate the area was ‘abnormally dry’ on average and that parts wouldn’t be in drought while it would persist in the southern part of the district. Wagner cautioned that some of the information didn’t seem to be updated after recent weather activity.
Field tech Johnny Wells reported that monitored well reports in Bosque revealed 19 up, 17 down and the rest were about the same as last readings. The meeting began with a permit hearing after which all 9 permits were approved.