County commissioners take measures to join regional water conservation district

By Kenny Mitchell

kenny@westbowiepost.com

Bowie County leaders have taken the first step in the direction of what they see is the most viable way to protect our most valuable resource, as they have approved a resolution to join with other counties across Texas to form a Regional Water Conservation District.

At last Monday’s meeting of the Bowie County Commissioners Court, the county leaders approved a resolution that will see the county join with neighboring counties to ask the Texas legislature in January to create the district.

State Representative Cole Hefner spoke at the meeting and is scheduled to introduce the bill needed to create the district when the legislature convenes in January of 2027.

Republican frontrunner for Texas House District 1 State Representative Chris Spencer told the West Bowie Post, “Our region needs a Groundwater Conservation District. No one wants government overreach, but this is an example of a true public necessity. Protecting our groundwater from entities deep drilling into the aquifer and diverting for profit. I am grateful for Representative Cole Hefner's leadership in this legislative initiative, and as State Representative I will co-sponsor this legislation in the next session.”

The enacting portion of the approved resolution reads, “The Commissioners Court of Bowie County hereby supports the creation by the Texas Legislature of a regional groundwater conservation district encompassing appropriate portions of Northeast Texas overlying the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer…The proposed district should be structured to provide for responsible regional groundwater management, conservation, monitoring, and protection of the aquifer utilizing sound science, local representation, and regional cooperation…The Commissioners Court supports a user-funded structure for the district utilizing production fees, permit fees, and other lawful revenue sources authorized under Texas law, with no ad valorem property tax imposed by the district.”

Precinct 4 Commissioner Mike Carter told the West Bowie Post after the meeting, “I thought the meeting went really well. Everyone was very supportive of forming it, with most seeing it as a way of stopping these data centers. It could mean a small charge to individual water users but will not mean any new taxes on local citizens.”

Carter has joined the ranks of Bowie County citizens who have grown very concerned about the negative impacts of proposed AI data centers, most notably, the potential for them to use millions and millions of gallons of water and be a drastic strain on the aquifers that lie beneath Bowie County lands.

Carter also said of the data centers, “I will not vote to wave ad valorem taxes for these data centers. They need to pay their fair share.”

The measure is directly related to the fact that much of NE Texas is one of the few places in the state to not have a water conservation district and counties have no control over their groundwater.

So, what is groundwater, and what will the proposed district do to protect it.

As its name suggests, groundwater is water found in the ground. It is not like a lake or a river, but rather water that lives in the various layers of the soil like sand, gravel and porous rock, like the water in a sponge.

In Northeast Texas, while there are many minor aquifers, the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer is one of the nine major aquifers in the state, and it replenished itself with the rainfall that naturally occurs across the region.

The counties joining together to hopefully create this district for Northeast Texas see it as a way to provide a framework to protect the groundwater in the region from those who would want to drain millions of gallons daily from the aquifers for industrial use, like a data center.

The push for a district is not without opposition.

Across the state, lawsuits and opposition to water conservation districts is based on the belief that a district is a direct attack on private property rights, especially farmers and ranchers that need access to water for irrigation purposes and to water their livestock.

In the State of Texas, what is known as the “rule of capture” basically says that if the water is beneath your land, it is yours and you have the right to pump as much of it as you need or want. Thus, private landowners often oppose water conservation districts and their restrictions and need for permits based on the belief that they  violate the constitutional rights of land ownership.

One such lawsuit involves ranching operations to the east of our area where Dallas area billionaire Kyle Bass is suing the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District based on its moratorium on large scale water extraction projects. Bass owns two separate ranch properties that had asked for permits for 43 water wells that could pump billions of gallons of water in the future out of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.

Similar lawsuits across the state pit water districts against private landowners in a debate over who actually owns the groundwater, and who has the right to control its use.

Cass County Judge Travis Ransom, who is at the forefront of the effort to create the Northeast Texas Regional Water Conservation District says, “By working together, Northeast Texas counties can share technical expertise, administrative costs, scientific resources, and legal guidance. Regional cooperation creates economies of scale while ensuring that decisions remain close to the people who depend upon the resource every day.”

Much like the data centers that connect industry and water, the district is an ongoing story. We will look at other facets of the issue in an upcoming series on the subject in future issues of the West Bowie Post.