State Senate District 25 Voter Guide

Donna Campbell
Robert Walsh

2022 General Election

In Senate District 25, incumbent Donna Campbell is being challenged by Robert Walsh.

Unfortunately, Senator Campbell’s apparent interest in protecting Hill Country residents and our natural resources from freewheeling quarries and the aggregate industry seems to be a flash in the pan. While she introduced a few decent quarry-related bills in 2019 (none passed), her track record of supporting legislation unfriendly to Texas citizens is disappointing.

Repeated contributions from TACA, Vulcan, and other APOs to Campbell’s campaigns over the years are concerning. Furthermore, it is telling that her senior policy advisor during the last session is now a government relations manager for Vulcan Materials.

Despite our open-door policy and hundreds of thousands of Hill Country residents desperate for support, Dr. Campbell was unhelpful during the past legislative session. Her reluctance to collaborate on development of real, meaningful solutions to the problems District 25 residents face is disheartening.

Robert Walsh, Democrat from San Antonio, describes protecting our environment as “crucially important” and makes it a top three issue on his campaign website. He looks forward to the sunset review process for TCEQ as a prime opportunity to implement badly needed reform.

Early voting begins on October 24 and election day is November 8, 2022. Visit the Comal County Elections webpage or VoteTexas.gov for polling locations and sample ballots. Candidate responses to our questionnaire are listed below.

Candidate Questionnaire

Preserve Our Hill Country Environment sent a candidate questionnaire to both candidates in August, then followed up with each candidate. Responses from each candidate are shown below verbatim. As per instructions, responses have not been edited for spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors. “No response received” is shown for any candidate who did not reply.

Question 1. Texas is currently suffering through a major drought, and many private well owners in SD25 are reporting that their wells in the Trinity Aquifer are going dry. Record population growth in the area has resulted in greatly increased water demand. State law currently limits the authority of counties to deal with land use issues related to rapid growth in unincorporated areas. What authority would you be willing to grant county commissioners and Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs) to manage new development activity to ensure that water demand never exceeds water availability?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 2. Vulcan Construction Materials will have to submit a Water Pollution Abatement Plan (WPAP) outlining best management practices needed in order to protect water quality in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone for their proposed 1500-acre quarry in Comal County. Water quality and supply are vital to District 25—both as a foundation for the local tourism industry as well as for human consumption, agriculture, and wildlife. Heavy industrial operations, quarries, and mining directly over the environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zones endanger one of our most precious natural resources—water. When Vulcan submits their WPAP for this facility, how, specifically, will you be involved and what actions will you take as a state representative?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 3. There are repeated examples of Texas Hill Country streams experiencing algal blooms and eutrophication following the implementation of wastewater facilities that had been approved by the TCEQ. Would you support requiring TCEQ to use water purity standards tailored to the Hill Country so as not to harm aquatic wildlife?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 4. In 2021, the House Interim Committee on APOs published a report laying out the issues associated with Aggregate Production Operations (APOs). The report spelled out background on each issue, the current regulatory scheme, and recommendations on how to improve the APO industry in Texas. Are you familiar with the report and its recommendations? Which of its recommendations do you think are most important? Are you willing to work across party-lines to enact laws to achieve these goals?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 5. In 2019, Representative Terry Wilson (District 20) introduced HB 509 and Representative Kyle Biedermann (District 73) introduced HBs 3798 and 2871. Will you author and support identical legislation?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 6. It has been recognized that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has major, systemic problems related to regulation and permitting of APOs such as quarries, concrete batch plants, asphalt plants, and other similar facilities. With TCEQ up for sunset review in the next legislative session, would you be willing to work with the Texas Sunset Commission to improve TCEQ permitting and their authorization of common-sense rules, oversight, and enforcement? What do you see as the biggest issues facing TCEQ and what needs to be done to solve them? How will you champion institutional change to improve TCEQs reputation with District 25 constituents?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.

Question 7. The mission of Preserve Our Hill Country Environment is to preserve, protect, and restore the land, water, air, wildlife, unique features, and quality of life in the Texas Hill Country against the aggressive and insufficiently regulated expansion of the aggregate industry. Considering our mission and the interest of our over 5,000 members, followers, and supporters, where do our priorities fit in to your legislative agenda? Do you think you can adequately represent our concerns and what will your strategy be to successfully represent District 25 in these undertakings?

Campbell: No response received.

Walsh: No response received.