The population of one small town in Edwards County swelled by more than 100 people on Thursday evening as Mason County folks—many wearing purple shirts—were among the Central Texans who beat a track to Rocksprings for a TCEQ meeting on a controversial dam proposal.

The Waterstone Creek dam in Edwards County would impound more than 12 acre-feet of water on the South Llano River for recreational purposes, according to TCEQ’s notice issued last year.

Once word spread, a tide of public comments began to roll in. The TCEQ’s public comment period ended with the meeting, but not before 991 public comments and requests for public meetings and formal hearings regarding the water rights permit application were logged.

“Water is a scarce resource in this area of Texas and to allow a private citizen to dam up the river for their own personal use is wasteful and immoral,” wrote Earlene Eppler, whose comment was along the lines of many others. “I strongly believe in land rights for the owner, but the Llano River belongs to all Texans.”

Several local environmental groups also began to take action. Save Lake LBJ, which formed in opposition to a sand and gravel mining proposal in Llano County, has joined the Llano River Watershed Alliance to fight the proposal.

Although the dam site is in Edwards County’s Colorado River Basin, the City of Llano and the counties of Llano and Mason all issued resolutions last year against the Waterstone project. Officials from Mason and Llano were in attendance at the meeting.

Check out next week’s Mason County News for more on the meeting.