WIMBERLEY, Texas — The Wimberley School Board voted unanimously to create a water-smart, One Water primary school.
- Wimberley ISD votes to create One Water school
- First of its kind in the state
- School will have rainwater collection, wastewater treatment
The district is making history by building the first One Water school in Texas. A One Water school promotes managing all the water as a single resource that is sustainable and reusable.
"This is huge for us. This is the first time that I would ever even conceive that it would happen," Superintendent Dwain York said. "This is an awesome concept. It works great in the Hill Country and especially in the community of Wimberley."
The campus will include rainwater collection as well as wastewater treatment, and will be focused on conserving natural resources through stormwater management.
"We think this is really the right direction of all development in the Hill Country to really integrate this approach that really honors water at every part of the water cycle," David Baker with Wimberley Valley Watershed Association said.
The design will protect environmentally sensitive areas like Jacob's Well, Blue Hole, and the Trinity Aquifer, and will reduce groundwater usage by 90 percent of what a traditional primary school would use. The district hopes it will be a catalyst for other districts to go green as well.
"This campus will be visited quite frequently over the next five to 10 years," York said. "I think especially here in Central Texas, with all the water issues that we've got, the fast growth, all of those issues, I think there's going to be several people that are going to be interested in just going somewhere where it actually works."
"In that Field of Dreams vain, 'if you build it they will come,'" Ashley Waymouth with Wimberley Valley Watershed Association said. "If you show that it is possible and that it saves money and it's cheaper or costs the same as convention method but it guarantees a more resilient future, it's kind of a no-brainer."
The unnamed primary school will be built at Ranch Road 12 and Winters Mill Parkway and will be open for Fall 2020.