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Rural landowners in Lee County, a rural area east of Austin, could soon be compensated after they lost access to water as a result of San Antonio’s groundwater pumping in their area.

Senate Bill 1080, which received preliminary approval by the House on Tuesday, would allow the groundwater management district that covers Lee and Bastrop counties to create a program to compensate landowners for the costs of lowering their water well pumps so they can reach the now-deeper water.

In 2020, the 150-mile Vista Ridge pipeline began transporting water southward from Burleson County to San Antonio’s growing metro region. Within a year, residents near the pumping station, most of whom rely on private water wells, began to notice their faucets sputtering with air. Groundwater levels in the area near Vista Ridge’s wells plummeted. Some wells saw a water level drop of close to 50%, local groundwater data shows.

As climate change — which enhances droughts and increases temperatures, and thus, evaporation rates — puts water from rivers and reservoirs under strain, groundwater is playing an increasingly important role in Texas’ water supply. Texas is the third-largest groundwater pumper in the nation, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

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In 2021, The Texas Tribune reported that some residents in Lee County had spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on lowering and upgrading their pumps to reach water.

“The problem in Lee County continues, and now it appears that some wells may need to be rebuilt or replaced entirely,” Elvis Hernandez, president of the board of directors for the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, told the House Natural Resources Committee during a hearing on the bill in April. The water level in some wells has dropped as much as 185 feet since 2020, Hernandez said.

Groundwater laws in Texas essentially allow anyone who owns or leases land to pump as much underground water as they want, regardless of whether it affects neighboring properties. Local groundwater districts, which typically follow county lines, can permit and restrict water pumping to conserve it for the future. But aquifers often cross district boundaries, and districts can’t regulate pumping outside of their jurisdiction.

The Lost Pines Groundwater District, for example, oversees Lee County, but it could not restrict the Vista Ridge Project, which is located just across the county line in Burleson County.

“Groundwater districts around the state are walking a tough tightrope,” Greg Ellis, an attorney for the Lost Pines district, told the committee at the April hearing. “Where we can, we should limit pumping to a level that is sustainable for the long term in order to make sure everybody continues to have water in perpetuity.”

The local bill, authored by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, would authorize the Lost Pines Groundwater District to create a program to help residents repair or replace water wells impacted by the declining water levels, using existing fees collected by the groundwater district to fund it. It still requires a final vote from the House before it goes back to the Senate to review an amendment made to the bill on the floor of the House on Tuesday. If the Senate approves — or the two sides agree on a compromise bill — Gov. Greg Abbott could then sign it into effect.

The House Committee on Natural Resources had examined the Vista Ridge Project in its interim report before the legislative session began and called it an example of large-scale groundwater transfers from rural areas to urban areas as the state’s population booms.

“Despite being assured that these aquifers remain healthy and plentiful, this fact is not reassuring to affected landowners who face the significant financial burden of deepening their wells and dropping their pumps,” the committee report said. “There is no doubt that Vista Ridge has impacted other surrounding wells.”

The committee recommended the Legislature expand assistance programs and set aside more funds toward groundwater planning, among other measures.

“It is not 1904, and a landowner’s only remedy shouldn’t be to pay out of pocket for a bigger, deeper well,” the report said.

The flavors pop, and their secret recipes have led to their success.

SAN ANTONIO — If you're craving carne guisada, chilaquiles or molcajete with sizzling fajitas, there's a restaurant in San Antonio that you can add to your must-visit list.

It's called Taco Jalisco (Authentic Mexican Restaurant Jalisco Style), and the family who owns this spot also owns 15 Mexican restaurants in the area. But, the location on 8099 Culebra Road is where it all began.

"My parents opened it in 1997. We have been proudly serving San Antonio. We strive to bring the best Jalisco-style Mexican food with a little bit of Tex-Mex as well," said co-owner Bryan Hernandez.

They’ve branded themselves as a place where you can bring the entire family because they have specials that start at $3.99. And yes, that means these tacos pictured:

Credit: Lexi Hazlett/KENS 5

"We have customers that have been coming here for over 20 years and they keep on coming," said manager Elizabeth Macias. "They could probably feed a family of five with $50 or $60, including a coffee or including a tea in our lunch special. So, that's really good."

But, if you’re wanting something other than tacos, they’re also known for a big plate that looks just as good as it tastes — The Molcajete, which is the Spanish word for mortar and pestle.

Credit: Lexi Hazlett/KENS 5

"It's sizzling fajitas with our salsa verde and then it's drizzled with white cheese, country sausage. On the side we have beans, rice and tortillas," said Macias.

Another best-seller is the Carne Guisada Plate.

Credit: Lexi Hazlett/KENS 5

"It's a thin cut of guisada and it's very juicy. It comes with nopalitos... it also has freshly homemade tortillas.

The flavors pop, and their secret recipes have led to their success.

"We always try the best we can to bring the customers the best quality. We always try to have the best service. We always try to make them feel at home," said Hernandez. "We're proudly from the city and we're going to give you an experience like no other."

Mother said 12-year-old son injured in second incident after changing schools

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SAN ANTONIO – A child with special needs at Harlandale Independent School District was forced to have surgery to remove one of his testicles after a classmate kicked him in the groin, district and medical records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.

The fifth-grader, who KSAT is not naming because he is only 12 years old, came home from Harlandale’s Bellaire Elementary School in February complaining that his left side hurt, his mother told KSAT.

“Later on that night his lips get pale and he starts throwing up,” said Robyn Moya, whose son suffers from apraxia, a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult for him to communicate.

After the child threw up again the following day and began to walk gingerly that weekend, he finally communicated to Moya that his private parts were swollen.

Moya took him to a nearby emergency room, and he was then taken by ambulance to North Central Baptist Hospital.

Moya said testing confirmed the child was no longer getting blood flow to his left testicle.

The injury was described in the boy’s medical records as a left testicle torsion.

“And he tells me, ‘Mom, I was kicked. I was kicked there,’” said Moya.

Doctors were forced to perform a scrotal orchiectomy, a procedure in which a testicle is surgically removed from the scrotum.

“It takes away from him feeling as normal as possible. It takes away from me not being able to be there for my son and protect him as the way a mother should, and we’re supposed to be sending our kids to safe places,” said Moya.

The child was able to write a statement in which he claimed a girl in class had hit him “on my ball,” records show.

A statement written out by a Bellaire administrator noted that the incident happened while students were lined up in class to go to recess.

A girl standing in front of the child turned around and kneed him in the groin with her shin, the statement reads.

Moya said she spoke with the Bellaire administration after her son was injured and that she eventually decided to transfer him to the district’s Vestal Elementary School.

She said in April her child came home from Vestal injured, this time complaining that his arm hurt.

“His so-called friend sticks his foot out and trips him in front of the whole class,” said Moya.

Moya again took her son to the emergency room and this time he was diagnosed with a sprained wrist and a sprained elbow, hospital records show.

Moya claims she was not notified by the school administration after either incident of violence took place.

“No notice home, no call home, no nothing,” said Moya.

Moya pointed to the two times her son was hurt in less than one semester while saying the district needs to be more vigilant in its monitoring of student behavior.

Reached for comment, Harlandale ISD spokeswoman Mariana Veraza Bravo told KSAT via email:

“The District is aware of the incidents and they have been investigated and handled accordingly based on the information available. Student safety is a district priority and safety protocols and procedures are in place. These incidents involve a student and are therefore confidential precluding the District from disclosing any further details.”

“Now my son has to live without a testicle due to the neglect,” said Moya.

Copyright 2023 by KSAT - All rights reserved.

Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 dynamic forward who is this year’s most prized N.B.A. prospect, cheered with his family in France as the San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 draft lottery Tuesday night. In San Antonio, fans, perhaps understandably, celebrated like they had won a championship, yelling in bars and honking car horns.

An ESPN reporter who interviewed Wembanyama on television moments after the Spurs won the lottery acted as if the draft, which is next month, had already happened. “What are the San Antonio Spurs getting in Victor Wembanyama?” the reporter asked.

Typically, athletes in these situations try to dismiss the idea that they will be the No. 1 pick and deflect with answers about being happy with whichever team selects them and how thankful they will be to be drafted at all.

But not Wembanyama, and frankly, why would he? He isn’t a typical draft prospect, and he wasn’t going to pretend to be one, either. He didn’t deflect. He had a straightforward answer about what he could be for the Spurs.

“A team player,” he said, adding: “I’m trying to win a ring ASAP, so be ready.”

Here’s what to know about the Spurs and Wembanyama, the 19-year-old star of the French professional team Metropolitans 92.

France and the Spurs have a long and successful connection.

Tony Parker and Boris Diaw are two of the best basketball players from France to ever play in the N.B.A., and they both won championships with the Spurs under Coach Gregg Popovich.

The Spurs drafted Parker with the 28th pick in the 2001 draft. He spent 17 seasons with the team, winning four titles, and he will be the first French player inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, with the ceremony scheduled for August. Parker posted a photo on Twitter of Wembanyama wearing a No. 9 Spurs jersey — Parker’s number — as a child and wrote, “Yesss he’s going to the @spurs!!! So proud of you.”

Diaw played for the Spurs in five seasons, and helped them win a championship in 2014.

“There’s a special relationship between France and the Spurs because of Tony, of course, and also Boris,” Wembanyama said on Tuesday. “I know half of the country, maybe if not the whole country, wanted the Spurs to have the first pick, so I was looking at everyone, and everyone was happy, so I was too.”

The Spurs have a great track record with big men.

Already being called the greatest prospect ever, Wembanyama will now follow in the footsteps of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, two of the best big men in N.B.A. history. Together, they led the Spurs to two championships, then Duncan led the Spurs to three more titles after Robinson retired.

The good part for Wembanyama is that Popovich, who coached Duncan and Robinson, is still there to help him develop. Still, Wembanyama is a much different player from Robinson or Duncan, traditional big men who were at their best playing in the post with their backs to the basket.

Wembanyama is comfortable scoring at all three levels of the court, adeptly dribbling around defenders to score and shooting jumpers that players his size are not supposed to be able to make. It will be a new experience for Popovich.

San Antonio is one of the most successful franchises in N.B.A. history.

The Spurs have the fifth-most championships in N.B.A. history (five), and won all of them between 1999 and 2014 under Popovich. With Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginóbili, the Spurs developed a core that anchored a dynasty.

Duncan was the best player of the group, winning the Most Valuable Player Award in 2002 and 2003. His Spurs also fended off many great teams and players to win championships. In both the 1999 and 2003 Western Conference semifinals, they beat Lakers teams led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. In the 2007 N.B.A. finals, they swept LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

“The talent, the coaching, everything in San Antonio was kind of a perfect storm,” Bryant said on the “All the Smoke” podcast in 2020. “If they weren’t in the picture, we probably would have won 10 in a row.”

The Spurs have struggled and been involved in controversy.

When the Spurs were winning, they were considered the model franchise in the N.B.A., with a great coach and stars who willingly bought into his system. But that mystique has dissolved.

The Spurs have not made the playoffs since 2019 and have become something of a punching bag in the league. At a news conference in September just before the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Popovich was honest about where the team stood: “Nobody here should go to Vegas with the thought of betting on us to win the championship,” he said. “And I know somebody will say, ‘Gosh, what a Debbie Downer. There’s a chance. What if they work really hard?’ It’s probably not going to happen.”

Popovich was right. The Spurs won 22 games, their third-lowest win total in franchise history.

Amid that abysmal season, Joshua Primo, the Spurs’ 2021 first-round draft pick, was accused of repeatedly exposing himself to a team sports psychologist during treatment sessions. The psychologist accused the team of failing to protect her and others even after she reported Primo’s conduct.

The Spurs cut Primo, and the psychologist settled a lawsuit against the team and Primo.

San Antonio couldn’t make it work with one key star.

In Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs appeared to have found their next star to lead them out of the Duncan, Parker and Ginóbili years. He helped them win a championship in 2014 and was named the finals M.V.P. But in the 2017-18 season, Leonard injured his thigh and missed most of the year.

Throughout the year, some public comments by teammates and Popovich seemed to imply that they questioned the severity of Leonard’s injury. At one point, Parker said he had the “same kind of injury” as Leonard, “but it was a hundred times worse,” and it had only taken him eight months to recover.

After the season, Leonard requested a trade and was sent to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for a package that included DeMar DeRozan. The next season, Leonard led the Raptors to their first title in franchise history.

The Spurs roster lacks talent.

Unlike Duncan, Wembanyama may not have an established big man like Robinson on the team who can help him grow.

The Spurs are laden with young players; only three players on the roster this season have more than four years of experience. Wembanyama will become the team’s best player on Day 1, responsible for carrying one of the league’s most notable franchises back to relevancy.

Of course, the Spurs have the whole summer to rebuild their team around Wembanyama. Based on how their fans are celebrating, everyone in San Antonio is ready for something new.

CHICAGO — The San Antonio Spurs are the victors of the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes after a dramatic reveal at the 2023 Draft Lottery on Tuesday saw them convert their 14% odds -- tied for the best with Houston and Detroit -- into the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. San Antonio secured the top overall pick for a third time in franchise history, giving the franchise a chance once again to reset -- as they did with David Robinson in 1987 and with Tim Duncan in 1997 -- around a big man viewed as a generational prospect.

The Charlotte Hornets moved up two spots and won the second overall pick in the draft, while the Portland Trail Blazers moved up to the No. 3 pick. The Houston Rockets fell to the fourth pick and the Detroit Pistons, in a stunner, fell all the way to No. 5.

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced the results inside the W375e ballroom in the sprawling McCormick Place event center to chaotic reactions across the room. Much of the lottery order as it was revealed in countdown style -- from No. 14 to No. 1 -- held true to form based on pre-lottery statistical odds. That was until Detroit, which had tied for the best odds of winning the No. 1 pick, fell all the way to No. 5. Houston fell two spots from its pre-lottery position to No. 4, while Portland, Charlotte and San Antonio all moved up two spots each.

The San Antonio Spurs have WON THE NBA DRAFT LOTTERY pic.twitter.com/apV6cuUQZn

— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) May 17, 2023

The Spurs have won the No. 1 pick in the lottery two previous times and both times they made picks that paid off for decades. In Robinson and Duncan, the franchise secured pillars who helped them win five NBA championships under Gregg Popovich.

Here are three takeaways from a momentous night at the NBA Draft Lottery

Smiles all around for Spurs

Peter John Holt, the on-stage lottery representative for the Spurs and the chairman of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, was all smiles as he sat on stage awaiting his franchise's fate Tuesday. He then quickly let loose and broke into an outburst of elation as the Hornets were revealed to be the owners of the No. 2 pick, giving by process of elimination the Spurs the top overall pick.

"LET'S GO!" he shouted, slamming his fist on his dais as NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced the Hornets pick. "WHOOOOOO! LET'S GO!!"