Groundwater conservation district gets new county

GREGG COUNTY — All across East Texas, counties are being asked to consider joining a possible groundwater conservation district in hopes of securing the rights for concerned residents by the next legislative session. On Tuesday, Gregg County Commissioners Court unanimously agreed to become a part of the district, if and when it’s formed. The decision to join came after a proposal by Brian Sledge, of Sledgelaw Group, who detailed the benefits of being a part of the district as others look to put a stake in East Texas water.

In Texas, there are over 100 groundwater conservation districts, which Sledge says are the only way, under state law, that water drilling and wells can be regulated. Sledge presented a color-coded map of the districts in the state, but East Texas’s top right corner is glaringly white and empty.

Without a district to protect the area, a large part of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer stands without protection from companies and people looking for water resources. Sledge says it’s probably the biggest area in the state with a substantial water resource without a conservation district.

“[The Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer] is an aquifer in which multiple folks who are needing new water supplies are already building pipelines to it,” Sledge said. “City of San Antonio has a 142-mile pipeline to pull water out of this aquifer. The City of Georgetown is working on a pipeline deal to take water out of that aquifer. There are a lot of folks along the I-35 corridor in Central Texas who are pretty much looking at nothing other than that aquifer as their future source of supply. So it’s just a matter of time before folks start knocking on the Northeast Texas portion of that same aquifer to try to start developing those water resources.”

Gregg County is among a dozen counties that have already joined the proposed district, including Smith County. Sledge and others working to bring the district to fruition hope to have about 15 counties by January 2027, when the bill is presented in the next Texas Legislative session.

The bill will introduce the district over the aquifer’s region to legislation, where it will undergo refining to the district’s boundaries, governing board and financing details.

“There are two ways that a groundwater conservation district can be financed: through a property tax or through pumping fees on big wells,” Sledge said. ” I think it’s almost a unanimous consensus that nobody wants a new property tax, so it’ll be paid for by pumpage fees on big wells. Not your household, domestic or livestock watering type wells, but big industrial, municipal, commercial wells, that are larger than some threshold size or pumping limit that would have to pay the fees.”

Every county that joins is part of the East Texas water that is protected, Sledge added, and any part left out is just a bigger target.

“The big thing is that you wanna get all of the counties that sit over the aquifer up there into the district and playing by the same set of rules and regulations, because if some county gets left out, it’s gonna be the only county where folks can just go pump all they want,” Sledge said.

The Gregg County Commissioners Court appointed Judge Bill Stoudt as its representative in the district, as other counties have also appointed their judge.