Stalled water plans lead to lawsuit

ANDERSON COUNTY – A company from the Dallas area is suing the local groundwater conservation district for impeding the installation of forty-three high-capacity water wells in East Texas. This year, the proposed project, which was supported by Conservation Equity Management and its CEO Kyle Bass, angered East Texans. One state lawmaker even attempted to halt the project during a special session. Bass has maintained that the company’s objective is to determine the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer’s water content before starting to extract from its depths.

The Groundwater District did not respond to requests for comment. The Dallas Morning News and The Texas Lawbook were the first to report on the lawsuit.

In April 2025, the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District declared the applications to be “administratively complete,” which is a legal term that indicates they were properly completed. By completing that step, the project was one step closer to receiving district approval.

The wells could pump billions of gallons from the aquifer, potentially draining their own wells, which alarmed lawmakers, business owners, and members of the community. To prevent the groundwater conservation district from granting the application, Wayne-Sanderson Farms LLC, which owns three complexes in East Texas, sued the district.

On October 23, a district judge approved that settlement and decided that until the aquifer could be studied, the district could not approve any applications that could lead to water withdrawals of 3,000 acre feet or more. The initial ruling that Bass’s permits were administratively complete was also overturned.