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SAWDF Legislative Update - Action Item!

House Natural Resources Committee Hearing, July 15; comment online!

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SAWDF Update – July 12, 2025

Share your Vista Ridge experiences with HNRC – comment online

Conservation Equity Management [CEM] filed an application for 49,000 AFY with the Neches & Trinity GCD [NTVGCD] to export groundwater to the DFW metroplex. The project consists of two well fields. The Redtown Ranch well field, 21 wells on 7,200 acres in Anderson & Houston counties, will produce up to 33,132 acre-feet/year. The Pine Bliss well field, 22 wells on 4,100 acres in Henderson County, will produce up to 15,840 acre-feet/year.

The applications have created a firestorm in East Texas! County officials for Anderson, Houston, Henderson, Leon, Commanche, and Smith counties are opposed. State Representatives Cody Harris and Trent Ashby are joined by Senator Nichols in opposing the project.

Representative Harris is Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee [HNCR]. Chairman Harris has called a HNRC public hearing on July 15 in Austin to hear invited testimony only regarding the impact of high-capacity and large volume groundwater production in the NTVGCD.

You can submit comments online, now thru the close of the hearing, at the link below. Chairman Harris listened keenly to testimony from landowners impacted by Vista Ridge. The chairman and other HNRC members can benefit from our experiences in the Lost Pines and Post Oak Savannah GCDs.

Use the link below to share your wisdom borne from the trauma of Vista Ridge.

• How did Vista Ridge impact your domestic/livestock well?

• Last session, the legislature passed priority bill HB 29 to reduce municipal water loss.

Why does the Texas Water Code, which prohibits “waste”, permit the export of precious groundwater to big cities that have municipal water losses of 10-20%? If DFW metroplex fixed their leaky infrastructure, they could save two times the volume of these projects.

• Senator Perry has stated, “When you move groundwater, you move livelihoods!” Should large-volume export projects have to conduct an economic impact study and/or pay impact fees to the source communities?

Texans can submit comments here: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c390

Watch live, 1pm, July 15, 2025: https://house.texas.gov/video-audio/

Meetings of Interest:

LPGCD Board Meeting July 16, 3:30pm; 317 E Hempstead ST; Giddings, TX

POSGCD Groundwater Summit, August 7, 2025, 9AM-4PM, Caldwell Civic Center, Caldwell, TX

Thank you for all your support.