If you live in Dripping Springs then you may need a contact for good well, septic and tree service people! I love introducing you to some of Drip’s finest! I know that water in central Texas is a hot topic and I wanted to interview Mason Stevens with Glass Well to help us all learn more about it!
Mason’s wife and I met through real estate and I was excited to learn that he recently bought this well business!
Hey Mason! Tell us more about you and your family…
Hi Lauren! We’re a small family of four. My wife, Anna, and I have two boys – Cooper (10) and Kipp (7) and we have a little Boston Terrier named Ruth. Like a lot of other families in this area, it seems our lives revolve around the boys and their schedules when we are not working. Both boys enjoy school, playing baseball, basketball and football so it’s non-stop with the two of them. Anna is Vice President over a market research department for a large student housing firm and is a local Realtor. I try staying above water with our business, Glass Well Service.
Anna grew up in Austin, and I grew up in the small town of McGregor just west of Waco. My career brought me to the Austin area in 2008 and shortly after, Anna and I met on an airplane and have been married for 12 years now..
When we’re not working our tails off at our jobs or chasing the boys around, we enjoy working on our property, enjoying friends’ company, attending our church at Austin Ridge, or just relaxing, enjoying family time. I enjoy bird hunting and fishing – I love to fish. If I ever find free time, I also really like to invent, build and fix broken things. Whether it’s made of wood, plastic or metal, I like coming up with solutions and solving problems.
How long have ya’ll been in Dripping Springs?
The best decision we ever made was the move from Austin to Drip. We are going on seven years here now!
What do you love about living in this community?
There’s a lot about this community that we love. I would say the greatest love is the friends we’ve made here. We have met some truly wonderful families through church, work and the kiddos sports.
During part of my childhood, I grew up in the middle of nowhere between McGregor and Gatesville. While Dripping Springs isn’t that desolate, we love the country, slower paced lifestyle here where you can really spread out. Most properties in this area give you the sense of being away from it all, but still have “the big city” just half an hour away.
Plus, this part of the Hill Country is really beautiful.
What made you decide to buy Glass Well Service (GWS)? What services do ya’ll offer?
At the end of it all, I would say it was a mix of the pandemic and working from home.
I have been so blessed throughout my career with good supervisors and co-workers who have invested their time and knowledge on me. I’ve worked with some of the most brilliant engineers, geologists and scientists I could ever imagine. Part of my career took me through a route of logging wells and helping design, build and maintain groundwater remediation systems. Wells and pumps were big components of these systems, and I always enjoyed working with these systems so the water well industry directly correlated with my past experience.
When the lockdowns started, we worked from home and I was waking up to a computer. I learned really quick that I couldn’t do that every day. When the opportunity came around to acquire GWS, we were open about it and let God’s hand move it in His direction. Over 1.5 years later, here we are. It’s definitely been the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life, but very rewarding as well at times.
We offer management of new water wells, complete service on submersible and surface pumps, water storage tanks, and water treatment and filtration to name a few. Basically, if it has something to do with a water well, we deal with it. From a new well on your property to the softener in your garage we handle it all. We have two offices, one in the Drip/Austin area and one in Wimberley.
What should we know about wells in Central Texas?
Central Texas is a large area and no two wells are the same. Under normal conditions, most wells in the Central Texas region do well for residential and commercial purposes.
Tell us about the local water table, what should we know about?
We’ve been in a severe drought for well over a year now and the water table is low. In some areas the water table has dropped as much as 350-feet.
Aquifers don’t recharge overnight with a 1/2″ rain shower. We need large amounts of rain over a long duration. The majority of wells in our area are drilled to the Middle Trinity and recharge in our hometown, Wimberley and along the Blanco through fractures and similar avenues.
With all of the concern about drought and the local aquifer running out with the boom in growth, what advice can you give to people who are concerned about water conservation for the future?
In severe droughts like we’re currently experiencing, do your part. Cut back on irrigation, waaaay back. Most folks don’t realize how much water you can burn through while irrigating. For example, attempting to water 1,000 square feet of turf 1″ can use up to 6,000 gallons of water.
Don’t use a well to fill ornamental ponds. It’s one thing to keep a stock tank full for livestock but keeping a pond full for the grandkids to fish out of doesn’t help your neighbor.
Reach out to your groundwater conservation district (GCD) for more information on drought severity and current stages. These Districts were put in place to help monitor and conserve aquifer levels and help well owners with questions they may have among their many other duties. The Hays Trinity GCD covers the western portion of Hays County, Blanco Pedernales GCD covers Blanco County and the Southwest Travis County GCD and Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer CD covers the eastern portion of Hays County and Travis County south of the lake and Colorado.
Aquifer levels will come back up, we just need rain and lots of it.
What makes Glass Well Service different from similar companies?
Customer service and honesty. We understand a lot of people are new to this area, maybe new to wells or just don’t understand how they work. We do our best to explain problems and to be as transparent as possible and help our customers. As with most small local companies, we sometimes get overwhelmed and we do our best to communicate and stay in touch with our customers. Small businesses don’t survive and grow without good customers and good employees. None are taken for granted.
When you have a spare weekend what do you and your families enjoy doing for fun in Dripping Springs?
Spare weekend, what’s that? 🙂
We’ll hit up a local restaurant or brewery to catch up and let the kiddos run around or entertain at our house or a friends. The boys are getting big enough now to enjoy bike rides, and other similar activities, with mom and dad – but mostly we love to be outside together as a family, often just hanging at our own home with friends and family.
What is your favorite watering hole in this area to take your kids to?
If it’s not at our house, I would say Reimer’s Ranch. We’ve been there a few times with friends and it’s really pretty. You can swim and fish and reservations aren’t required like at Hamilton Pool.
How can we follow you on social media?
You can hit us up on facebook or instagram, or visit us at www.glasswellservice.com or give us a ring at (512) 288-1963.
Love Dripping Springs and want to learn more about the area? I’m a local real estate agent and would be happy to answer any questions you have or help you buy or sell real estate in Dripping Springs or the Austin area! Call or email me today to get started! 512-569-8480 or laurenclark@magnoliarealty.com
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