The wider 2026 habitat program includes refugia and biological monitoring for species at Comal Springs in New Braunfels.
The EAHCP Implementing Committee is scheduled to consider a $225,000 increase to the Edwards Aquifer Authority's 2026 habitat funding application, from $18,194,608 to $18,419,608.
The money is part of the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan, which includes conservation measures at the springs that feed the Comal River. The added amount is a request for program work. The committee's posted action item calls for consideration of both the work plan and funding application; its status is agenda ready.
Where the increase would go
EAA's current 2026 application totals $18,194,608; the amendment would add $200,000 for program management and $25,000 for applied research. The signed application carries the proposed total.
The work plan budget table says the program management increase responds to additional professional services expenses, while the research increase responds to additional applied research expenses. The table also includes refugia, biological monitoring, water quality monitoring and an aquifer storage and recovery leasing program. Those line items explain the wider habitat program; the proposed increase is assigned to the two amended categories.
A timeline in that same work plan records the original 2026 application in October 2025 and a $32,000 program management amendment approved in March 2026. That history gives residents a baseline: the Oct. 8 proposal would be a second funding application amendment, and its proposed increase is larger than the first.
The next decision
The committee is scheduled to consider the amendment Oct. 8, and EAA's work plan lists Nov. 11 as a pending EAA Board date for the funding application. The committee agenda places this action at item 6.1.
The committee meets at 10 a.m. Oct. 8 at Landa Haus and by Zoom. The agenda gives a meeting ID, 994 6335 0416, and says people who want to comment should email the habitat program. Readers can inspect item 6.1 in the agenda and the signed funding application to follow the proposed amounts and check the eventual action. Contracts or spending records that identify how the added services and research money is used will be the next test of this request.