Petition for groundwater conservation district in Wood County certified; voters get final say

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

October 3, 2002 -- The petition to form Lake Country Groundwater Conservation District(GCD) in Wood County was approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ, formerly TNRCC) on Sept. 25.

With the approval, the five Wood County landowners listed on the petition to become temporary directors were affirmed: Jim Armstrong, Ed Bennett, A.D. Kleinman, Glenn Morton, and Louis Pyle.

These temporary directors have the responsibility to put the issue before the voters.

Wood County voters will get the final say as to whether or not Lake Country GCD is formed, as well as the district's first permanent set of directors, and approve the district's proposed tax rate.

The voter-elected directors will come from each of the county's four precincts, plus one at-large director. These five elected directors will be the ones to operate the district, write its management plan, and establish its rules.

"This district will provide Wood County with local control over our 'treasure-trove' of groundwater resources versus allowing for the possibility of future control out of Austin," cited Pyle upon receiving news that TCEQ approved the petition.

The petition to form Lake Country Groundwater Conservation District was "created in response to a petition SOSONET (Save Our Springs Of North East Texas) filed in April of this year on behalf of 150 Wood County landowners, and it represents over 24 months of hard work by the organization's board of directors and 550-plus members," said Pyle, SOSONET's director.

The order certifying the petition cited the petition is supported by the Wood County Commissioners, City Councils of Hawkins, Mineola, Quitman, Winnsboro, and Yantis, SOSONET, the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Wood and Upshur-Gregg counties; Wood County Farm Bureau board of directors; Hawkins Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Holly Lake Ranch Association.

Earlier this year, TCEQ named a 27-county region in Northeast Texas as a groundwater management area, a decision encouraged by SOSONET when they saw a great need to manage and monitor the area's groundwater after Ozarka, a water bottling company, announced plans to construct a plant in the county.

Also, the rapidly-growing population (which has growing water needs) in metropolitan areas, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, put added emphasis on the group's goals.

The groundwater management area covers at least four aquifers, including the Carrizo-Wilcox, Queen City, Sparta, and Yegua-Jackson. The lake Country GCD would have the authority to manage these and other aquifers within Wood County.

Information, and misinformation, about GCDs, such as how they operate and are funded, and if they are needed, is being circulated. Because the formation of Lake Country GCD will be a decision left to the county's voters, accurate information is vital.

"We still have a big job in getting everyone who lives in Wood County to understand why we need this (groundwater conservation) district, what services it will provide, and how we will pay for it," said Kleinman on Sept. 25.

SOSONET holds open monthly meetings and members are available for public programs (www.sosonet.homestead.com or 903-629-3155). Other sources for GCD information include TCEQ (phone 512-239-6947 or online at www.tnrcc.state.tx.us) and the Texas Water Development Board (phone 512-463-7956).

The temporary Lake Country GCD directors will be sworn in, and conduct their first open meeting, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in the commissioner's courtroom of the county courthouse, Quitman.

There is no timeframe for holding the election that will place the Lake Country GCD issue before the Wood County voters, but Pyle said it will have to be on a "standard election date. ... So we're looking at Feb. 1."

In the last five years, only two GCDs have been formed by a petition filed by county landowners, according to Kelly Mills, senior staff geologist within TCEQ's technical analysis division. Others were established by the commission in Austin. Mills noted about 68 GCDs have thus far been created in Texas.