East Texas water district sued over wells

HENDERSON COUNTY — A Dallas-area company, attempting to install dozens of high capacity water wells, is suing a groundwater conservation district to stop the company from drilling, according to our news partner, KETK. The lawsuit was filed against the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District, alleging a ‘deliberate scheme’ to stop Ranch Holding, LLC, and Pine Bliss from drilling.

It was filed in federal court on Tuesday. This stems from a longtime dispute, as they attempt to obtain permits to drill 43 water wells on their properties in Anderson and Henderson counties. Since then, the plaintiffs have faced several obstacles after the district suspended their permits and allegedly blocked them from filing new applications under a new moratorium that was adopted in May.

In 2024, Redtown Ranch Holdings and Pine Bliss sought 43 permits from the state for high-capacity water wells on their properties, which span an approximate total of 11,500 acres across Anderson and Henderson Counties. Shortly after passing through a few application processes, the NTVGCD voted to suspend all 40 permits after numerous East Texas public officials began to speak out against the proposed wells and their potential impact on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which supplies water for the ranches’ groundwater and much of the counties.

Crockett City Administrator John Angerstein warned that those wells could extract up to 10 billion gallons annually from the aquifers.
“Yet none of this water is designated for our communities,” Angerstein told KETK News in 2025. “It is likely intended to support unchecked development and sprawl in other parts of Texas, presumably in the DFW metroplex or Hill Country, areas that have failed to plan responsibly for their own water needs.”

The ranches are allegedly tied to environmental sustainability private equity firm, Conservation Equity Management Partners, which is run by Dallas businessman Kyle Bass, founder and CEO of the firm.

According to the lawsuit, the groundwater conservation district suspended the permits to “appease” the interests of local farms, who allegedly see the two ranches as a “competitive threat.”

The lawsuit names Sanderson farms, a large Texas poultry producer, and the Consolidated Water Supply Corporation as the local interests, both of which draw water from the same aquifer as the two ranches.

In May, the district adopted a moratorium pausing all new groundwater use permits unless they fell under certain exceptions. The plaintiffs now seek fair compensation and relief from the district’s decision to adopt the moratorium that paused new groundwater-use permits and called it a “deliberate, targeted, and escalating campaign.”

In the lawsuit, the ranches claim that the moratorium “permanently restricts” their ability to exercise their groundwater rights and that the exceptions to the pause on permits don’t apply to them by design.

“The economic impact of the moratorium on plaintiffs is severe,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs have invested substantial resources over more than two years in pursuit of their applications, including filing fees, hydrogeological studies, engineering analyses, legal costs, and other expenses directly related to the development of their groundwater estates. The moratorium renders those investments worthless for an indefinite period.”