Action Alerts
Our first Action Alert this session
The "Sustainable Groundwater Development Act" was not filed -- thanks to all who responded to our Action Alert
We tried to get legislators to file our comprehensive reform bill drafted by San Antonio attorney James Lee Murphy (see SAWDF's Fact Sheet on the bill and the bill's text here), to assure the future sustainability of our groundwater resources in our State.
SAWDF took action behind the scenes
We supported legislation to "Get LCRA Out of Groundwater"
No legislator was willing to prevent the Lower Colorado River Authority from exploiting our groundwater resources and the Colorado River ~ see the text of the bill we supported here.
Good Bills SAWDF Advocates
Go here to track the status of any bill for which a bill number is provided.
Sustainable Groundwater Development Act ("SGDA")
Here's why SAWDF supported the SGDA and why we still hope to see it passed in some form this Session:
Support the Sustainable Groundwater Development Act:
Sustainable, Regional Partnerships Are the KeyTexas faces periodic drought, continuing population growth, and the need to remain economically competitive. Water supply is critical to facing each of these challenges. Every effort must be made to develop sufficient and cost-effective water supplies on a sustainable basis.
The majority of Texans today rely on surface water projects that were developed in response to the prolonged drought of the 1950’s. This drought of record has been exceeded in parts of the state while the population continues to grow at a dramatic rate. Clearly traditional sources of municipal water supply are in many cases inadequate to meet future demand. However, the need for additional resources must be balanced against the protection of the state’s limited water resources for the needs of future generations.
Groundwater is a mainstay of rural and agricultural communities, and its value to the state economy and the security of the nation’s food supply cannot be overstated. The last decade, though, has seen a surge in private efforts to market groundwater across vast distances to municipal end-users with little regard for rural and agricultural communities. These private efforts don’t come from the water-planning or environmental sector. Rather they represent institutional investors and speculators who look to government debt to balance their high-risk portfolios.
Such investors have been making use of well-positioned lawyers and lobbyists to impose their own de facto Water Plan on the people of Texas. Unlike the official State Water Plan, their plan is not predicated on the need for water supply projects. Frankly, the needs of local communities and the environment have no place in it. And these investors have been very successful, facing little organized opposition at the State Capitol and before local governments.
As a consequence, the State Water Plan has been relegated to the sidelines and replaced by a plan predicated on: (1) moving high quality freshwater from rural and agricultural communities to distant municipalities; (2) bullying groundwater conservation districts into permitting well-fields without regard for either sustainability or need; (3) lobbying public officials to ignore conjunctive use (multiple sources of a water supply, rather than single source) or other alternate projects in the State Water Plan; and (4) suborning regional projects so that as much groundwater as possible will be mined as quickly as possible.
Institutional investors and financial speculators benefit from their de facto Water Plan because they can place large sums of money in long-term debt guaranteed by local rate- and tax-paying residents with little notice and accountability, at least until the public has to begin to pay for all that long term debt. By then, the investors, and of course their lawyers, engineers and an army of consultants will have long since cashed out and left the public to pay the cost and continued maintenance for redundant and unnecessary projects.
The foregoing scenario isn’t a matter of speculation or a warning of some future calamity. It is already being played out in San Antonio. The reality is that the rate- and tax-payers of San Antonio are on the hook for a $3,400,000,000 142-mile pipeline project, despite the uncontroverted fact that the actual, ignored, State Water Plan includes projects that could have provided the same amount of water at less than half the cost and would have allowed the city to share the cost of operation and maintenance of the project with other communities.
The Vista Ridge scandal and men behind it is a powerful illustration of the need for The Sustainable Groundwater Development Act.
The Sustainable Groundwater Development Act will foster cost-effective projects based on sustainability, regional partnerships, and conjunctive uses. Groundwater is a finite asset that is recharged slowly and for which the risk of overdraft is significant.To help this state meet its current and future water needs while avoiding wasteful and duplicative projects, it makes for sound public policy to develop groundwater on a regional basis concurrently with other water planning solutions.
What the Sustainable Groundwater Development Act Does:
• Adds a chapter to the water code promoting groundwater development on a sustainable basis
• Restores a reasonable definition of need to prevent speculation in groundwater
• Clarifies that Permits issued by Groundwater Conservation Districts neither convey property rights, nor limit existing property rights
• Requires political subdivisions to consider regional alternatives before undertaking groundwater projects
• Enhances the economic value of state property rights in the beds and banks of Texas rivers
• Ensures that groundwater projects do not diminish existing surface water rights or environmental flows
• Requires river authorities to monitor and collect data on the surface groundwater exchange
• Creates an Office of Public Interest Counsel to participate in public hearings on major permit applications
Advantages of the Sustainable Groundwater Development Act:
• Fosters cost-effective groundwater projects based on principles of sustainability.
• Prevents wasteful, duplicative projects by promoting cost effective regional partnerships.
• Promotes projects based on multiple sources of supply, conservation and storage
• Provides meaningful public participation in groundwater conservation district permit hearings
For more information: Contact James Lee Murphy, a Top Texas Water Lawyer, jamesleemurphyesq@att.net or 210-859-2189 (C)Sustainable Groundwater Development Act
Here's the text of the bill:
Text of proposed Sustainable Groundwater Development Act
86R H.B. No.
AN ACT
relating to the development, diversion, treatment, and use of groundwater and the discharge of treated groundwater and waste resulting from the development of the state’s groundwater resources.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
AN ACT
relating to the development, diversion, treatment, and use of groundwater and the discharge of treated groundwater and waste resulting from the development of the state’s groundwater resources.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. a. Texas faces periodic drought, continuing population growth, and the need to remain economically competitive. Water supply is critical to facing these challenges and every effort must be made to develop sufficient and cost- effective water supplies on a sustainable basis.
- The vast majority of Texans today rely on surface water projects that were developed in response to the prolonged drought of the 1950s. This drought of record has been exceeded in parts of the state, while the population continues to grow at a dramatic rate. Traditional sources of municipal water supply are no longer adequate to meet future demand. Diversifying the state’s water portfolio must be balanced against the needs of future generations and the protection of the state’s precious water resources.
c. Groundwater is a mainstay of rural and agricultural communities. Groundwater’s value to the state economy and the food security of the nation cannot be overstated. Groundwater is a finite asset in that the majority of our state’s groundwater is recharged slowly and the risk of overdraft is significant.
- The last decade has seen a surge in private efforts to market groundwater across vast distances to municipal end users with little regard for rural and agricultural communities or for projects based on sustainability, regional partnerships, or conjunctive use.
- The legislature finds that it is necessary and appropriate to grant authority and provide guidance to local governments and municipalities in order to develop the state’s groundwater on a conjunctive, sustainable and regional basis, consistent with appropriate environmental and water right protections, while eliminating unnecessary and wasteful projects.
SECTION 2. Subtitle E, Title 2, Water Code, is amended by adding Chapter 34 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 34. PROVISIONS GENERALLY APPLICABLE TO GROUNDWATER
Sec. 34.001. SHORT TITLE. This chapter may be cited as the Sustainable Groundwater Development Act.
Sec. 34.002. PURPOSE. The purpose of this chapter is to prevent waste of the state’s groundwater resources and promote the sustainable development, production, collection, transportation,
treatment, and disposal of groundwater pursuant to authority created and existing under Article XVI, Section 59 or Article III, Section 52 of the Texas Constitution.
Sec. 34.003. CONSTRUCTION OF CHAPTER. The terms and provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purposes.
Sec. 34.004. DEFINITIONS. (1) The definitions contained in Subchapter A, Chapter 35 and 36 of this code apply to this chapter.
- "Produced groundwater" means groundwater that has been removed or severed by sale lease or contract from the overlying surface acreage. It does not include groundwater used onsite for domestic and agricultural purposes.
3. "Sustainable" means: groundwater projects designed to protect an aquifer from over-production by limiting production to that which can be sustained for future generations without damaging surface waters and local communities. Sustainable projects incorporate other sources of supply, including brackish groundwater, surface water, marine seawater and aquifer storage and recovery to minimize overreliance on any one source of supply.
4. "Need” means: a sustainable project for which an end user or political subdivision is under obligation to purchase or has committed development funds prior to filing a permit application. Need does not include potential or speculative uses, including permit applications based on letters of intent or interest.
5. "River authority" means any district or authority created by the legislature which contains an area within its boundaries of one or more counties and which is governed by a board of directors elected, appointed or designated in whole or in part by the governor, or by the Texas Water Development Board
Sec. 34.005. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAWS. In the event of a conflict between this chapter and Chapter 11, 35 or 36, this chapter controls.
Sec. 34.006. DIVERSIONS OF GROUNDWATER. (a) A permit may not be granted, extended or renewed under Chapter 36 of this code absent a determination of need supported by substantial evidence.
(b) A political subdivision or entity otherwise subject to this code may not develop groundwater for domestic or municipal use, own or import groundwater from another planning region if the state water plan identifies equivalent water supplies from other sources in the entity’s region capable of meeting the demands set out in the permit application.
c. A district may not grant or amend a permit for export of groundwater outside of a district’s boundaries if the state water plan identifies equivalent water supplies from other sources in the end user’s region capable of meeting the demands set out in the permit application.
d. The commission by rule shall prescribe reasonable measures to enforce this section.
Sec. 34.007. OWNERSHIP OF GROUNDWATER DISCHARGED INTO WATERS OF THE STATE. (a) The state becomes owner of groundwater severed by sale, lease or other conveyance for transportation and treatment and subsequently discharged, directly or indirectly, into waters of the state. This section does not apply to groundwater dedicated to agricultural uses.
Sec. 34.008. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF GROUNDWATER. (a) It is the policy of this state to promote the development of groundwater on a regional scale. A political subdivision may not expand or develop groundwater as a source of supply without consideration of regional alternatives in the state water plan.
Sec. 34.009. BED AND BANKS AUTHORIZATION. (a) With prior authorization granted under rules prescribed by the commission, a person may use the bed and banks of any flowing natural stream in this state or a lake, reservoir, or other impoundment in this state to convey groundwater that has been treated so as to meet standards that are at least as stringent as the water quality standards applicable to the receiving stream or impoundment adopted by the commission.
- The commission shall provide for notice and an opportunity for a contested case hearing regarding commission actions relating to an application for an authorization under this section.
- Groundwater that is conveyed under an authorization granted under this section may be used only by the person to whom the authorization is granted.
Sec. 34.010. PROPERTY RIGHTS. (a) A permit granted under Chapter 36 of this code does not convey any property rights of any sort, or any exclusive privilege. The proper jurisdiction for takings or other property related claims is the District Court where the property is located.
Sec. 34.011. SURFACE – GROUNDWATER EXCHANGE. (a) A permit granted under Chapter 36 of this code may not diminish or otherwise negatively impact the surface waters of the state, existing or future surface water rights, or environmental flows.
(b) River authorities shall collect data on the surface groundwater exchange in their respective basins and identify all negative impacts of groundwater withdrawals on distribution and flow of surface waters. River authorities are delegated the responsibility and the right to defend surface water rights against infringement or diminishment by groundwater withdrawals and may assess costs associated therewith as an administrative overhead on any services provided by the authority.
SECTION 3. Title 2, Agriculture Code, is amended by adding Chapter 11A to read as follows:
CHAPTER 11A. OFFICE OF PUBLIC INTEREST COUNSEL
Sec. 11A.001. CREATION AND GENERAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC INTEREST COUNSEL. The office of public interest counsel is created to ensure that the commission promotes the public's interest in rural and agricultural water supply. The primary duty of the office is to represent the public interest as a party to matters before groundwater conservation districts.
Sec. 11A.002. PUBLIC INTEREST COUNSEL. The office shall be headed by a public interest counsel appointed by the commissioner of agriculture.
Sec. 11A.003. ANNUAL REPORT; PERFORMANCE MEASURES. (a) The office of public interest counsel shall report to the commission each year in a public meeting held on a date determined by the
commission:
- an evaluation of the office's performance in representing the public interest in the preceding year;
- an assessment of the budget needs of the office, including the need to contract for outside expertise; and
any legislative or regulatory changes recommended under Section 5.273(b) The commission and the office of public interest counsel shall work cooperatively to identify performance measures for the office.
Sec. 11A.004. DUTIES OF THE PUBLIC INTEREST COUNSEL. (a) The counsel shall represent the public interest and be a party to all groundwater conservation district proceedings.
(b) The counsel may recommend needed legislative and regulatory changes.
Sec. 11A.005. STAFF; OUTSIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT. (a) The office shall be adequately staffed to carry out its functions under this code.
- The counsel may obtain and use outside technical support to carry out its functions under this code.
- The office shall be funded by an assessment on all groundwater export permits and all permits issued for over 2500 acre-feet. The commissioner shall determine the assessment on annual basis, effective September 1 of each year.
Sec. 11A.006. APPEAL. A ruling, decision, or other act of a groundwater conservation district may be appealed by the counsel.
Sec. 11A.007. FACTORS FOR PUBLIC INTEREST REPRESENTATION. The commission by rule, after consideration of recommendations from the office of public interest counsel, shall establish factors the public interest counsel may consider before the public interest counsel decides to represent the public interest as a party to a groundwater conservation district proceeding.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
The "Get LCRA Out of Groundwater" Bill
Here's the text of the bill:
Text of proposed act:
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT relating to the powers and duties of the Lower Colorado River
Authority.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 8503.004 (r), Special District Local Laws
Code, is amended to read as follows:
(r-1) As a necessary aid to the conservation, control,
preservation, purification, and distribution of surface waters and
groundwater of the Colorado River and its tributaries within the
boundaries of the authority, the authority shall collect data on
the surface groundwater exchange in the Colorado River basin, and
identify all negative impacts of groundwater withdrawals on the
Colorado River flow. The authority is delegated the responsibility
and the right to defend surface water rights against infringement
or diminishment by groundwater withdrawals may construct, own,
operate, maintain, or otherwise provide sewage gathering,
treatment, and disposal services, including waste disposal
services, and may make contracts regarding those services with the
United States, this state, counties, municipalities, and others.
The authority shall charge the actual cost of those services.
(r-2) The authority may construct, own, operate, maintain, or
otherwise provide sewage gathering, treatment, and disposal
services, including waste disposal services, and may make
contracts regarding those services with the United States, this
state, counties, municipalities, and others. The authority shall
charge the actual cost of those services.
SECTION 2. Section 8503.005 Special District Local Laws
Code, is amended by the addition of Section 8503.005 (h)to read as
follows:
(h) The authority may not finance, develop, own or operate
groundwater well fields or facilities related to the development,
transportation or any other use of groundwater. The authority may
from time to time contract with public or private entities for the
purchase and transportation of groundwater to supplement existing
surface water supplies, provided however that any such use by the
authority must be specifically authorized and approved by a
groundwater conservation district with jurisdiction over the
source of groundwater.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
