Kerr County Water Alliance honors flood victim with a push for structural change
The alliance is now transitioning its organizational structure from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(c)(4), a move that will allow it to legally lobby elected officials and support political candidates who prioritize sustainable groundwater management — something its current nonprofit status prohibits.
The Kerr County Water Alliance carries a name in its founding story that its members do not say without weight.
Ron Duke was a passionate river keeper, outdoorsman, and founding member of the alliance, which was established in 2023 during one of the hottest, driest summers on record — a moment when groundwater pumping, failing wells, drying riverbeds, and unauthorized river dams had local residents alarmed. Duke’s riverside home in the Casa Bonita neighborhood took the full force of the 2025 flood surge. He did not survive.
The alliance continues in his memory, and its board member Karolyn Andrews used Tuesday’s Lead Live appearance to connect the organization’s environmental advocacy directly to the disasters the community has experienced twice in 13 months.
“The fact that there is a human-made element to all of this is the source of our hope,” Andrews said, “because if we’re the ones causing part of the problem, then we can be part of the solution.”
The alliance argues that while flooding is a natural phenomenon, over-developed watersheds and paved runoff zones have amplified the damage. By clearing riparian buffers, building retention ponds that overflow in extreme events, and paving land that once absorbed water, the region has made itself more vulnerable than it needed to be.
The alliance is now transitioning its organizational structure from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(c)(4), a move that will allow it to legally lobby elected officials and support political candidates who prioritize sustainable groundwater management — something its current nonprofit status prohibits.
Two major upcoming programs: An all-member meeting on Friday, Sept. 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at UGRA will feature a screening of the documentary Hope for the Guadalupe and a call for community members to bring physical photos of their personal views of the Guadalupe River. Those photos will be submitted to the Texas Floodplain Management Association to support state-level lobbying. And beginning Thursday, Sept. 17, at 4:15 p.m. at the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library, the Water Wise Learning Series will work through Charles Fishman’s book The Big Thirst at one chapter per month, with guest speakers including GBRA General Manager Terry Bushnow and UT Austin hydrogeologist Dr. John Sharp.
“The second flood gave us a chance to stop saying it’ll never happen again,” Andrews said. “I hope it teaches us things, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
Sept. 11 meeting: 5:30–7:30 p.m., UGRA. Water Wise series: Sept. 17, 4:15 p.m., Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library. More at kerrcountywateralliance.org.
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