Save Our Springs group focuses on groundwater education, formation of conservation district

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

January 17, 2002 -- Ozarka's plans to collect water from natural springs beneath Wood County has met opposition; but one water conservation group doesn't want a battle with the corporation, but is rather focused on the process to establish a board that could legally govern water collection.

Save Our Springs - Northeast Texas (SOSNET) is working to establish a groundwater conservation district for Wood County. The district would monitor the water, and the quality of water, that runs beneath the ground.

A.D. Kleinman, SOSNET vice president, noted that collection or well sites established prior to the district being formed will be grandfathered, but "not the amount of water" collected.

SOSNET is concerned about the loss of East Texas' water resources, much of which is being piped away to large, metropolitan areas.

"By 2050, the population in Texas will double, but guess what, the water will not," Kleinman said.

To establish a groundwater conservation district, SOSNET learned they would first have to be determined a management area. In February 2001 the group applied for such status.

"We got notice this week that it looks like we will be okayed by March 7," Kleinman said referring to a conversation between a Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) representative and SOSNET's president Louis Pyle.

When the target date of March 7 nears, SOSNET will again put plans in motion to get signatures (a minimum of 50 landowners in Wood County) and support to show TNRCC the area's desire to have a groundwater conservation district established. Once that petition is given to TNRCC, it could be nine months to a year before it is approved by TNRCC, Kleinman explained.

Once the affirmative nod from TNRCC is given for the groundwater conservation district, TNRCC will appoint a temporary board that will set up the election to place 10 directors on the groundwater conservation district board. The election ballot will be made up of Wood County residents who campaign for a position on the board.

"The board will start immediately after the district is established to put plans and rules in motion," Kleinman said.

The board will have two years to get the district's water plans in place. They will look at hydrological tests, water usage, etc., to determine the best ways of handling the district's natural resource. Every two years the rules can be amended.

Ozarka, who is a member of The Perrier Group of America, a division of Nestle, has faced opposition in Texas before. An Ozarka pumping facility in Henderson County, which opened in 1996, was challenged in a state lawsuit that landed in the Texas Supreme Court. Justices ruled that a state water-use law known as the ''rule of capture'' allowed the company to pump unlimited amounts.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, along with a top Texas Extension Cooperative and TNRCC representative, are slated to talk about Texas' water and groundwater conservation districts at a Feb. 4 event in Quitman. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. and a free barbecue dinner will be served. Reservations (for meal count) can be made through SOSNET at 903-629-3016 or 903-629-3155.

"We (SOSNET) are hoping for local support" so information on groundwater districts can be presented, Kleinman concluded.