Federal Records Show Three Kerrville Area Water Systems Exceeded Radiation Limits for Years — So Where Are the Post-Flood Radionuclide Test Results?
A recovery diver who spent time in the Guadalupe River after the July 4 flood posted his toxicology results in the Kerrville Breaking News group last month. Uranium showed up on his heavy-metals panel. His level was in the lab's "green" range — but at the 75th percentile, and as he put it, "it shouldn't be there." The same diver says the ATF and other federal agencies cleared everyone, including local police, out of the river for a period of time, citing a trunk of guns in a submerged vehicle.
We can't verify what the feds were doing in the water. But his uranium result sent us into the federal drinking-water databases — and what we found there is a matter of public record that nobody in the Kerrville area seems to be talking about.
Radioactive contaminants are already documented in the groundwater of the greater Kerrville area.
Three local public water systems have racked up more than 130 federal violations for exceeding EPA radiation limits — some of them ongoing as recently as spring 2025.
The three systems
EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) lists eleven Kerr County public water systems with radionuclide-related violations. Most are paperwork violations — missed tests. But three systems actually exceeded the federal Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for radioactive contaminants, and every one of them is a groundwater system pumping from wells:
1. Arimak Water Supply (PWS TX1330135) — serves about 105 people in the Kamira and Arimak subdivisions northwest of Kerrville ("Arimak" is "Kamira" spelled backwards). State records show two active wells: Well 1 at 152 Kamira Dr. and Well 2 at 157 Box S Dr. Since 2014 the system has logged 76 MCL violations for gross alpha radiation (peaking at 20 pCi/L against a federal limit of 15) and combined radium-226/228 (peaking at 8 pCi/L against a limit of 5). Fifty-two of those violations are still listed as open — and the most recent violation period is April 2025. This system was still exceeding federal radiation limits in the months before the first flood.
2. Blue Ridge Mobile Home Park (PWS TX1330133) — between Kerrville and Ingram, near one epicenter of the July 4 disaster. It serves about 75 people from wells on Blue Ridge Road. This system has 217 total violations in EPA's database, including 52 exceedances of the radiation MCLs between 2014 and 2023 — its gross alpha peaked at 27 pCi/L, nearly double the federal limit — and 206 violations remain unresolved. And here's the detail that stopped us cold: both of the system's active wells are carried in state records with the word "UNAPPROVED" in their facility names ("1 - MH 164 / UNAPPROVED" and "3 - REPL 2 / UNAPPROVED"). A third well is listed as plugged.
3. Saddle Mountain Water Cooperative (PWS TX1330176) — serves about 84 people off Saddle Mountain Trail North and Limestone Ridge. Two active wells. It exceeded the combined radium limit five times in 2021–2022, peaking at 6 pCi/L. To its credit, those violations are all resolved and the system returned to compliance.
That's roughly 260 of our neighbors who have been served water that, at times, exceeded federal radiation standards — for years.
Where the water comes from
All three systems are classified by EPA as groundwater systems. Their wells sit in the karst country of the Edwards-Trinity and Trinity aquifers. Driller reports filed with the state for wells near these sites show boreholes 400 to 660 feet deep, punching through cavey, fractured limestone — several logs record total lost circulation, meaning the drill bit hit open voids — before reaching water-bearing sands. Floodgate Report V shows 571 karst voids and caves in Kerr County notated lithology logs pulled from when they were drilled.
That geology matters for two reasons. First, the radium and alpha radiation in these wells is almost certainly naturally occurring — uranium-series minerals in the rock itself. This is a known problem in Hill Country aquifers, and to be clear: these violations date to 2014 and were not caused by any flood. Second, karst is leaky in both directions. The same river that recharges the aquifer through swallow holes and gravel is fed back by springs. In this county, groundwater and the Guadalupe are not separate systems. If the rock our drinking water sits in carries naturally occurring radionuclides, that is a question for the river too — especially after a flood that gutted the riverbed, moved millions of tons of sediment, and left search teams and volunteers working in the water for weeks.
It's a well documented fact in the public water community
If an agency that is the taxpayer funded, appointee-only government "authority" with no elected officials were to completely ignore a question that is as important as radionuclide testing after a flooding event, when there is documentation showing that radionuclides do exist in the greater Kerrville area in the Upper Glen Rose, Lower Glen Rose, and Hensell Sands of the Middle Trinity aquifer, what else are they ignoring, or omitting from other agencies and the public?
This Albers Projection from 1983, republished in 2022 and shown below, from the Texas Water Development Board Report 388 contains a clear exhibit of the areas close to Kerrville in the Trinity Aquifer that have levels of radionuclide exceeding Texas Commission on Evironmental Quality levels.
Feel free to download and learn the truth about the area that we call home here in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. The entire TWDB Report 388 is free to the public and is hosted with an enormous database full of groundwater studies done throughout the Texas Hill Country going back to the 1960's. The information in this article is not new. It's not made up. It's in the documents. And unfortunately, it's not being conveyed accurately to the public. Omission is a form of deception and we believe the public should know the facts.
There can be no possible way that the Upper Guadalupe River Authority does not have this information. It's on their own website.
The October 2025 Plateau Region Water Plan says it in plain English.
"Radium has been detected in some Trinity wells in Kerr County." - Plateau Region Water Plan - October 2025 | UGRA.org
See for yourself on this PDF.
What was tested after the flood — and what wasn't?
To be fair, UGRA deserves credit for what it did do.
Public Dashboard
They have been working very hard to create a dashboard that omits side by side streamflows from showing up next to each other and promoting it over all local dashboards with help from their government and media partners, which keeps residents dangerously blinded regarding the vast changes in streamflows when they need accurate details now.
Below is the Riverhub dashboard that UGRA's partners praised very highly for warning them about flooding dangers before the flood July 15-16.
UGRA's first Facebook post about the flooding dangers didn't come until after 3 P.M. July 16. when the waters had mostly receded.
The proper way to warn residents about flooding dangers is to give them streamflow amounts along with the stages. That could be detrimental though for their omission to the community about the streamflows gaining and losing millions of gallons per hour on a normal basis.
The Kerrville Breaking News Weather Radar has side-by-side streamflows built in on PC so residents can see for themselves exactly what our river is doing.
Sirens
UGRA has been working with other local agencies to source funds and install sirens along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, but their minutes show a river side property aqcuisition in a flood zone from May 2025 for $400,000, right next to the City of Kerrville's new riverfront property adjacent to Granger MacDonald Park.
Testing
UGRA did resume E. coli sampling on July 10 after the July 2025 catastrophe, tested 13 sites by July 17, and ran non-routine panels for hydrocarbons, metals, herbicides and pesticides, reporting results below reporting limits and declaring bacteria levels back to normal within weeks.
But go look at UGRA's own descriptions of its monitoring programs — the Clean Rivers Program, the County Wide Program, the Summer Swimability Study. They test for bacteria and standard field parameters. Nowhere, in any UGRA program description, press release, or post-flood statement we could find, do the words "radionuclide," "gross alpha," "radium," or "uranium" appear.
So we're asking UGRA, publicly:
- Did the metals panel run on July 11, 2025 include uranium? If so, publish the number. If not, why not — given that three public water systems in this county have documented radionuclide exceedances?
- Has UGRA ever tested Guadalupe River water or sediment for gross alpha, gross beta, radium-226/228, or uranium after any flood? This area floods again and again — 1978, 1987, 2002, 2016, 2018, 2024, 2025, and 2026. Each one rearranges the riverbed. If the testing happened, where are the results?
- Will UGRA publish the complete lab reports — full analyte lists, detection limits, and results — from its post-flood sampling, rather than summaries?
Radionuclide testing is cheap and routine. A gross alpha screen is a standard drinking-water test that the small systems above are already required to run. If a 105-connection co-op on Kamira Drive can test for it, the river authority can spend taxpayer money on public health before purchasing riverside property in a flood zone.
What this is — and what it isn't
Let's be precise, because precision is what we keep asking of officials. Nobody should read this and panic about swimming in the river. The diver's uranium result was inside his lab's normal range. The MCL violations above are chronic drinking-water exposure issues for specific small well systems, not proof of river contamination — radium's health risk (it accumulates in bone and is linked to increased cancer risk) comes from drinking it for years, not from a swim. And small rural systems often lack the money for treatment; if the operators of Arimak, Blue Ridge, or Saddle Mountain want to tell their side — what treatment or blending they've added, what "return to compliance" work is underway — we will gladly publish their experience.
The idea of deception is just as much of a concern as the idea of the known radiation levels alone. There is a chance that these levels could also be much higher than the public would be expecting. Then again, they could also be lower. We don't know, because they have not been transparent with the levels.
And, "don't panic" and "don't look" are not the same thing. The federal record says radioactive contaminants are in Kerr County groundwater, in wells a few hundred feet from people's kitchen taps, with violations still open as of this year. A diver who worked the recovery has uranium on his tox screen and questions nobody has answered. And the agency whose name is literally the Upper Guadalupe River "Authority" has never once, as far as its public record shows, tested the river for the one class of contaminant our own aquifer is documented to carry.
Test the water. Publish the results. All of them.
Tara Bushnoe is the Director of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA) located in Kerrville, Texas, and can be reached by phone at (830) 896-5456.
Also, serving on the board of Directors at UGRA:
Dr. William R. Rector, MD | President
Dr. William R. Rector, MD, graduated from Tivy High School in 1960 and Texas A&M in 1964, received his MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and completed his internship in the Air Force. He served as a flight surgeon during the Vietnam War before completing a radiology residency at the University of Colorado, where he developed a special interest in ultrasound. He joined the medical staff at Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital in 1980 and transitioned to the Peterson Regional Medical Center where he retired after 31 years. Dr. Rector has served on various boards and committees, including the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce, KISD trustee, Kerrville City Council, Main Street Advisory Board, Historic Downtown Business Alliance and the Symphony of the Hills Board. He is the longest-serving member of the Kerr County Historical Commission and is President of the Heart of the Hills Heritage Center and a member of the Kerrville Christmas Lighting Corporation. He was named the Kerrville Daily Times Bill Dozier “Citizen of the Year – 2024. Dr. Rector was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2016 and reappointed in 2023. He was appointed as Board President in December of 2023.
Maggie Snow | Vice-President
Ms. Snow of Kerrville is the co-owner and appraiser of TexAppraise, Inc. She is a member of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers and the Appraisal Institute. She was the first woman in Texas to receive the Accredited Rural Appraiser designation. In addition, she is an adult leader of Kerr County 4-H Shooting Sports and a member of the Executive Women’s Club. Snow received her Bachelor of Science in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University. Ms. Snow was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2018 and reappointed in 2023.
Austin Dickson – Secretary
Mr. Dickson of Kerrville is CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. The Foundation makes grants to nonprofits and awards scholarships to students throughout a 10-county area. A Waco native and TCU graduate, Mr. Dickson is a board member of Texas Public Radio, Humanities Texas, and the KLRN Endowment Fund, which supports the region’s PBS station. Mr. Dickson was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2019 and reappointed in 2021.
Diane L. McMahon | Treasurer
Ms. McMahon received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. She is retired from United Space Alliance, NASA where she was an experiment support scientist and payload integration manager. Ms. McMahon is currently an active Master Naturalist and Master Gardener, and participant in the UGRA Volunteer Summer Study. She is also a member of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust board. Previously, Ms. McMahon was elected to two terms on the Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District board and served on the City of Kerrville Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Ms. McMahon was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2015 and reappointed in 2021.
Weir Labatt III
Weir Labatt of Kerrville is retired from the Labatt Company wholesale grocery business. After leaving Labatt Company, Mr. Labatt devoted his life to serving his community. He was the first director of the SAMMinistries program for the homeless in San Antonio, executive director of the San Antonio Fire and Police Pension Fund, president of the Central Texas Water Supply Corporation, and a member of the San Antonio City Council. He served on the boards of the Edwards Aquifer Authority, Texas Water Development Board, Western States Water Council, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, Headwaters of the Incarnate Word, and Schreiner University. Because of his involvement in water policy for over 40 years, he was giving the name “Old Man Water” by the San Antonio Express News. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army and received a Bachelor of Business Administration from UT Austin. Mr. Labatt was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2025.
Jonathan Letz
Jonathan Letz of Comfort is owner of Cherry Creek Ranch, The Garden Haus, and Southwest Turf and Irrigation. He is past president of Texas Wildlife Association, chair of the Plateau Water Planning Group – Region J, director of Grace Christian Academy, and vice president of Kerr Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Letz served as Kerr County Commissioner for Precinct #3 for 28 years and worked extensively on county subdivision rules and statewide water issues. Letz received a Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Petroleum Land Management from UT Austin. Mr. Letz was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2025.
Blake W. Smith
Mr. Smith of Hunt is an owner of Camp La Junta, Incorporated. He is a member of the American Camping Association, former board member of Our Lady of the Hills High School, and past president and member of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress. Mr. Smith was formerly president and member of both Hunt ISD Board of Trustees and Kerrville Public Utility Board. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Trinity University. Mr. Smith was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2015 and reappointed in 2021.
Jeanne Stacy
Ms. Stacy of Ingram is the director of Camp Waldemar in Hunt. She attended public schools in Huntsville and received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. She is a member of the American Camp Association and the Society for Human Resource Management. She is also a member and past president of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress. She and her husband Philip Stacy have two grown children, Gretchen and Thomas. She was appointed to the UGRA Board in 2023.
These aren't the first concerns
KENS 5 was concerned about the water quality after the 2025 catastrophic flooding event. The video below shows how UGRA responded.
Dr. William R. Rector MD can be heard giving a very intricately thought out statement to the KENS 5 reporter.
"The testing that we have done, has not shown elevated levels of anything that would harm people." - Dr. William R. Rector MD | August 27, 2025
Sources: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via Envirofacts, retrieved August 2026 (PWS IDs TX1330135, TX1330133, TX1330176); TCEQ Drinking Water Viewer; TWDB Submitted Driller Reports; UGRA program pages and public statements reported by KENS 5 and the Kerr County Lead, July 2025. The diver's account and toxicology screenshot were posted publicly in the Kerrville Breaking News group and are presented as his statements; KBN has not independently verified the federal river closure. UGRA, TCEQ, and the three water systems are invited to respond and any response will be published in full.
