Northeast Texas water group hopeful of district development

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

Texas Ag Commissioner Susan Combs was one of the speakers at the recent SOSONET meeting. With Combs were Extension's Dr. Bruce Lesikar (left) and TNRCC's Kelley Mills (center). -- Staff photo by Cope

February 14, 2002 -- The Save Our Springs Of North East Texas (SOSONET) group is hopeful March 8 will be the day they file to become a groundwater conservation district; as March 7 may be the day the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC) officially grants the request to be a groundwater management area.

The water conservation group, which formed in 2000, has worked extensively to establish a groundwater conservation district, but becoming a groundwater management area was the first cog in the wheel.

If TNRCC establishes a groundwater management area (GMA) for Northeast Texas, it will encompass 27 counties in the region. Wood County, which serves as a "home" for SOSONET, could be the first to become a groundwater conservation district. If the group decides to become a "district," a petition signed by 50 landowners in the county would be necessary.

SOSONET already has about 100 names on a petition, according to the organization's vice president, A.D. Kleinman.

If the GMA for Northeast Texas is okayed, it will encompass the underground water of four aquifers.

An update on SOSONET's request was given at a Feb. 4 meeting in Quitman, which also included a panel of experts who detailed groundwater management areas and groundwater conservation districts.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, Extension Agricultural Engineering Professor Dr. Bruce Lesikar, and TNRCC's Kelley Mills, along with SOSONET's president Louis Pyle, presented information to the near 300 Northeast Texas residents who attended the meeting and free barbecue dinner.

The speakers were in agreement that water is a valuable resource and East Texas has an amount that has caught the eye of the growing metropolitan areas. A groundwater conservation district could protect the water resources in aquifers, groundwater withdrawals, well spacing, and the export of groundwater, as these are not regulated.

A groundwater conservation district is like a 'level playing field' in that it can authorize and manage equal access to the groundwater, explained Lesikar.

To establish a groundwater conservation district in Wood County, a series of steps are necessary. Once a GMA is designated, the TNRCC will appoint a temporary board to organize an election that will give the county's voters the opportunity to select citizens for the district's board.

Preliminary details presented at the meeting suggest people who would like to seek a seat on the board can have their name on the ballot, and voters can choose one from each precinct in the county, plus one at-large member.

The district's board will gain information from monitoring the quality and quantity from existing groundwater collection sites, rainfall, etc. From this information, policy, or rules, will be set that most benefits the water supply. These rules can be adjusted to "fit" variations in groundwater resources as it fluctuates over the years.

The panel of speakers stressed to the audience that having a groundwater conservation district is a way to have local citizens make decisions and set policy for the governing of groundwater in the district.

Several questions came from the audience following the speakers' presentations. Most centered around the cost to property owners for operating a groundwater conservation district, as well as the amount of funds that can be obtained through fees imposed on the retrieval of groundwater.

The district's cost could range from $80,000 to $400,000 annually, noted Lesikar. "It's a question of will you hire technicians, have a staff, a building, the number of counties it will serve, all this comes into play."

If the district is formed, can the district tax an existing water supply corporation's pulling of water? Mills said yes, if the water supply corporation owns property and pays taxes. "Generally, water supply wells are not exempt," he said.

But one manager of a local water supply corporation noted that the corporation is exempt from paying ad valorem taxes, therefore the district would have to take situations such as this into consideration.

A SOSONET board member noted usually water supply corporations pass any fees onto their customers. "But let's put this into perspective," he said. "A 1-cent per $100 (evaluation on property value) tax means a $10" a year tax amount. And TNRCC's spokesman said the majority of the districts set a 1-cent to half-cent per $100 tax rate.

The district, if and when in place, would consider also any fees charged for water transferred out of the county.

Another audience member queried the significance of waiting to establish a district. Combs noted that the local decision will have to consider "how fast you think the issues will arise .... I stress, just because you have a district doesn't mean you put in choke-hold rules. As you go through (the data gained from monitoring the water situation), you 'may' decide what you want (to do)."

In conclusion, SOSONET offered their website (sosonet@home.com) as a source for additional information about the establishment of a groundwater conservation district for Wood County.