Water woes

County and chamber officials and Realtors are concerned over what they believe will be a serious economic impact on the county and a violation of property owners’ rights if the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District adopts its proposed permanent rules.

The issue has to do with water wells and tract size.

The proposed rules include a five-acre minimum for the drilling of water wells. Currently the minimum for Hood County is two acres.

Those who oppose the rule say that it will impact development and cause problems for property owners who want to divide up their land and sell it.

However, UTGCD General Manager Doug Shaw said that not adopting the rule could also have negative consequences because of “major formations” of the Trinity aquifer that are “trending down.”

“What happens if we do nothing and in 30 to 40 years, homes aren’t able to have water?” he said.

The UTGCD works to protect existing wells and the availability and accessibility of groundwater in Montague, Wise, Parker and Hood counties. Its board is comprised of members appointed by those counties’ Commissioners Courts.

Shaw said the UTGCD board is looking to adopt the permanent rules in January or February. Local officials prefer that no action be taken until summer.

At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Commissioners Court adopted a resolution asking the UTGCD to hold off until mid-2019 “in order to allow the rules to be vetted by all involved, and to see if there will be any State legislation forthcoming in the 2019 session.”

The resolution also asks that the district work with county officials “on a county by county basis” prior to establishing permanent rules.

There is concern that Hood County would be unfairly penalized for how well-drilling has been handled in the district’s other counties.

“In Montague and Wise (counties) they have drilled water wells on every acre,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Bruce White. “We haven’t had that here.”

According to Shaw, though, the law doesn’t give the UTGCD the authority to regulate on a county-by-county basis.

On Thursday afternoon, the Granbury Board of Realtors submitted a resolution to the UTGCD similar to the Commissioners Court’s.

The resolution asks for a six-month delay “in order to provide an opportunity for meaningful discussions of the proposed rules as they pertain to each county in the district.”

The Chamber of Commerce also considered a resolution at its board meeting Thursday morning but tabled it “pending more information,” according to an email sent to the HCN by CEO Mike Scott.

Scott was present at the Commissioners Court meeting and spoke from the podium about the issue. He said that he attended a recent board meeting at the UTGCD’s Springtown office where about 40 people spoke. Only two of them favored the five-acre rule, he said.

Scott also stated that “only two or three” of Texas’ 100 water districts are imposing rules about tract size.

White said he was told when he attended a class in Waco about water districts that the goal is to push everyone onto public water systems. He said he received confirmation of that from the UTGCD.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Steve Berry said that water districts were created by the Legislature in 2007 primarily to protect landowners from fracking by the oil and gas industry. The districts have been operating under temporary rules and are now working to pass permanent regulations.

“Now they’re telling landowners what they can do and not do,” he said.

IMPACT ON DEVELOPMENT

Realtor David Cook of RE/ MAX Lake Granbury, who attended the UTGCD meeting with Scott and Lee Overstreet of Winston Properties gave the HCN examples of why the five-acre minimum rule would be a problem.

In one example, he said, “Joe Farmer” with 10 acres might want to divide his property and give it to his three kids.

“He can’t do that anymore,” Cook said.

Under the new rule, the farmer’s offspring wouldn’t be able to have water wells on their portion of land.

Berry, who will be stepping off the court at the end of the year and recently earned a Realtor’s license, said that problems may arise in local real estate sales because of out-of-town Realtors who sell properties here and may not be fully informed about regulations.

Local banks would probably be up to speed on the rules change, Berry said, “but what if (the buyers) use a credit union out of the Metroplex?”

Cook cited as another example a 92-acre property that he recently listed. He said the sellers instructed him to market it to developers as a piece of land that can be divided into two-acre tracts.

If the five-acre rule is adopted, what would have been a profitable 46 lots with “nice houses” will become only 18 lots. Either that, or the developer would have to pay an exorbitant amount to bring public water to the development.

RIGHTS INFRINGEMENT?

Although the economic impact and potential headaches are a significant concern, so, too, is the issue of property owners’ rights.

“I believe the state of Texas is still under right of capture,” White said. “You own the water underneath your property. I feel like they’re trying to infringe on (those) rights.”

Cook shares White’s view and said he feels that the five-acre rule is a “huge overreach.”

“It kills, in my mind, private property rights,” he said, adding that it takes away “a valuable asset to the landowner.”

Cook said it feels as if Hood County “is being punished by Big Brother for being in this four-county district.” He noted that 530 wells were dug recently in Parker County, while in Hood County there were only 80.

Berry is not convinced that the five-acre rule is necessary to protect water. He said that data doesn’t show that the lower Trinity River “is fluctuating more than about 6 inches in the last 10 years.”

He said that Hood County officials would be willing to go to a three-acre rule as a compromise.

UTGCD’S RESPONSE

Although the resolutions ask for more time, the UTGCD has been working to make each county aware of what’s probably coming.

Shaw said he started meeting with commissioners about the permanent rules in June.

Public meetings were recently held in all four counties so that UTGCD board members and staffers could explain the proposed rules, answer questions and listen to feedback.

The public also was invited to the recent board meeting that was attended by Scott, Overstreet and Cook.

Citizens will also have an opportunity to speak at the board meeting that will be held at the district’s office at 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 17. The address is 1859 West Highway 199 in Springtown.

Shaw said he spoke on Monday with White and Berry and with Scott on Wednesday.

“We always intended it to be a very public process,” he said. “We are listening to comments and we fully intend to address those comments and be responsive.”

Shaw said that the UTGCD measures water levels in 150 wells in the four counties to track trend lines. He said that more wells are drilled in Parker County than in any other county in the state.

He said that the Trinity aquifer is split into three major formations and all three are trending down in Parker.

Two of those formations are in Hood County, Shaw said. One is “already trending down,” while the other has not changed significantly.

Overall, the current way of doing things is not “a sustainable path” in the view of the UTGCD, Shaw explained.

“Water levels are falling,” he said, adding that 250 wells cannot be drilled on 550 acres, pumping anywhere from 100,000-500,000 gallons of water out of the ground per year.

“It has a detrimental effect on the aquifer, which is not really recharging,” he said. “The decline is caused by the proliferation of private domestic wells on small lots.”

Although Shaw acknowledged that groundwater “is a private property right,” he said that water districts are authorized under Chapter 36 of the “water code” to dictate tract size.

Shaw said it is possible the UTGCD will announce after its December board meeting that variances to the tract rule can be requested.

He said that anyone seeking an exception to the rule could be mandated to have a hydro-geological study done. If “real world science and data” showed that the well would be sustainable, the UTGCD would approve it, he said.

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258