She swore to protect the Hill Country. He was 89 million gallons over his permit. The spring ran dry. Their love never did.
HD 73 since January 2023. Freedom Caucus. Believes in property rights, star-spangled pants, and second chances for utilities.
A for-profit water company from Pennsylvania. About 3,000 customers in Wimberley and Woodcreek. Pumping without a renewed permit. Wants a raise.
Stopped flowing in 2023 for the sixth time on record. Now flows only after heavy rain. Still hoping someone calls.
Per Texas Monthly: two and a half years at Aqua's parent company, in between stints working for her husband. Knows both families.
Former state rep, now CEO of the American Energy Institute. Motto: "Liberate America's Energy." Has a store. Has a pledge. Has a donate button.
Tall, cool, runs hot. Drinks a lot of water. "Critical infrastructure," she says, blushing.
The district wanted to meter him. She wanted to protect him.
She arrives in Austin to represent Wimberley and Woodcreek. Her first session produces a firearms preemption law and no water legislation. Back home, a man from Pennsylvania has just pumped about 89 million gallons over his permit in the 2022 drought. She doesn't notice him yet. Everyone else does.
The district fines Aqua about $449,000. Instead of paying, Aqua sues the district in federal court, claiming unequal treatment. Jacob's Well stops flowing. A bad boy with a legal team. Her type.
Some people write poems. She writes HB 2812. Per Texas Monthly, it would have done one thing: exempt Aqua and other big regulated pumpers from any oversight by the local groundwater district. Hays County commissioners pass a resolution against it. It dies in committee. She later says, "I filed that bill to get attention, plain and simple." It worked. He noticed.
SB 2660 rides into town: passed by the Senate 31 to 0, backed by every Hays County commissioner of both parties and the mayors of Wimberley and Woodcreek. It would let the district charge fees on large pumpers. A Republican commissioner says there was "only one factor" hindering support: her. It sneaks onto SB 1253. The House passes it 112 to 28, and she votes yes. Then she says she was misled and moves to reconsider. Fails, 57 to 73.
She texts constituents: the bill means mandatory metering on private landowners. Per Texas Monthly, metering was optional and the tax ban stayed; she acknowledged the metering claim was a mistake. On June 5 the district votes, in writing, never to meter or charge fees on household or ag wells. Her campaign site answers: "They said they wouldn't. But they tried." Love doesn't read resolutions.
The governor vetoes SB 1253. The district's general manager says the area is back where it started. The rival suitor leaves town. Aqua keeps pumping. The couple is safe.
Safe from the district, Aqua files for a raise at the Public Utility Commission: 23.4% more water revenue, 51.8% more sewer revenue, and $4.5 million in legal fees, some from the rate case he already lost. Woodcreek votes 5 to 0 to say no. It's in the next section. Bring tissues. And a checkbook.
A data hall tour. A Facebook post: data centers "aren't just about tech they're about building a stronger future!" Later she says she'd prefer they not come to the Hill Country, but calls them critical infrastructure and wants parameters, not a ban. Aqua sees the post. Aqua says nothing. Aqua is also a utility that would love new customers.
Watch the sequel: Love at First ByteWritten by us. Nobody said these words. That's what makes it a Hallmark movie.
AQUA (low, trembling)
They want to meter me, Carrie.
CARRIE
Not while I'm in this building.
AQUA
What about the well? The swimmers? The little ones on the rope swing?
CARRIE (turning away)
The 1950s drought ended, didn't it?
A single drop falls from a faucet. It is billed at the volumetric rate.
True love is expensive. Somebody has to pay for it.
Spoiler: it's you. Aqua's rates are set by the Public Utility Commission, and Aqua keeps asking for more.
Every romance needs a friend who says "go for it." His company's own pitch to towns: Aqua is "always looking to expand its footprint." TESPA says Aqua keeps adding new homes around Wimberley, with plans for hundreds more.
According to TESPA, Aqua's records for the first three months of 2025 show its Woodcreek II wells pumped more than 11 million gallons over the legal limit, and lost more than 9 million gallons to leaks. TESPA's complaint has gone to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
In October 2025, Woodcreek's mayor passed along Aqua's reminder: Stage 4 drought, all outdoor watering prohibited. You conserve. He bills.
A candidate forum on water, in Wimberley, hosted by TESPA and neighborhood groups. Her aide cites a scheduling conflict. Organizers say they sent multiple invitations and offered to move the date; one calls the response "disingenuous." The empty chair says everything.
Her husband Jason runs the American Energy Institute, which champions oil, gas, coal and nuclear. Its latest cause: asking the White House to retire what it calls "discredited climate scenarios." It sells merch. It takes pledges. It is, in the family tradition, very confident about natural resources.
Oil at home. Water at work. Data centers on the side.
Visit the in-lawsThe district treated providers unevenly, refused to permit two new wells Aqua drilled away from Jacob's Well, and spent heavily on lawsuits. Production fees are a tax by another name. The governor agreed.
The district is one of the weakest in Texas by charter. The fix had near-unanimous local support from both parties. Her bill would have freed the largest pumper from oversight, and her messaging overstated the effect on landowners.
Every Hallmark movie ends with a choice. This one's November 3.
Carrie Isaac is on the ballot in House District 73. The PUC rules on Aqua's rates weeks before. The 2027 session decides whether a district reform bill comes back, and whether Jacob's Well gets its happy ending.
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