Heads above Water: The Inside Story of the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program by Robert L. Gulley (review)

Robert Gulley, who served for years as a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, thoroughly accomplishes the purpose of this book: to describe how, after decades of “hostility, distrust, and litigation” (xix), thirty-nine hotly contentious and widely diverse stakeholders reached consensus about a solution to one of the most vexing problems of Central Texas, finding sustainability and balance in the use of the precious waters of the Edwards Aquifer while also protecting eight federally listed endangered species. Serving as mediator and leader of the work promulgated under the Texas legislature’s federally sponsored process known as the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program (EARIP), Gulley brought the participants to the agreement known as the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Program. This is certainly the most significant water policy breakthrough in modern Texas history.

Especially effective is Gulley’s explanations of the upcoming content of each of the two major parts of the book, a necessary technique that keeps the scope of this complex subject corralled and also provides a thematic thread for a non-expert audience. In part one, Gulley wisely uses the historian’s tools by expertly interpreting chronologically organized primary source documentation of over a century’s human-aquifer interface. He explores the expansion of the use of the aquifer, which resulted in environmental damage that raised the attention of the federal courts, thereby threatening the sovereignty of the people of Texas over their water policies. Because Texans dearly value their sovereignty, federal intervention threatens them perhaps more than citizens of other states. Gulley’s clever use of his phrase, the “blunt axe of federal intervention” (157), demonstrates his ability to communicate with style and elegance. Few authors, if any, could better explain the bludgeoning power of the federal Endangered Species Act over wide-reaching, heretofore unrealized areas of local public policy.

In part two, Gulley explores the organization of the EARIP, detailing critical issues and their ultimate resolution. This is followed by a full assessment of the largest stumbling block, the “impasse” issue (143) over who would ultimately pay for the plan. In the concluding chapter, Gulley reflects on why the EARIP succeeded where so many other attempts had failed.

Gulley was wise to include an understandable one-page overview of widely misunderstood Texas water laws in Appendix 3 (179). He missed an opportunity to include another brief appendix explaining the typical mediation process, which continues to settle 80 percent or more of civil lawsuits in Texas. This book is a vital chronicle of a major mediation from the facilitator-mediator’s perspective in the language of the mediation process, making it a valuable addition to Texas professional continuing education literature.

Gulley’s book is a must-read for all water policymakers, for anyone concerned about the reasonable preservation of Texas’s water resources, and for those seeking a deeper understanding of Texas history. The book should be a mandatory text for law schools and environmental science programs everywhere.