Report on Interim Water Hearing on Tuesday! Water Wonk Supreme, Dr. Robert Mace boiled it down!

Water Attorney Deborah Trejo and Marcus Gary, Board Secretary/Treasurer, Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, hydrologist and professor

The Texas House Natural Resources Committee held a nearly 7-hour interim session hearing on Tuesday, February 10, focused on Texas groundwater. It's not news, but deserves tp be said, Texas is facing a water crisis that's been brewing for years.

Here's how Robert Mace Boiled It Down

Some striking statements include those of one of the top water scientists in the nation, Texas's very own, highly respected Dr. Robert Mace, formerly of the Texas Water Development Board, now at Texas State University's Meadows Center.

Mace said this about the Desired Future Conditions (DFCs) that groundwater districts are required to calculate every five years to estimate how much water the community will need 50 years in the future. Mace testified that "95% of current DFCs are not sustainable”.

Surprisingly, Mace also boiled it down on the depletion of one of the largest aquifers in the world, the mighty Ogallala Aquifer underlying eight of the Plains states, including our West Texas. The depletion is not due to the supposedly minimal recharge of the aquifer. The aquifer has a healthy recharge rate. It's because the states that share the aquifer are withdrawing water with no holds barred. 

The last hour of the hearing with Deborah Trejo, a well-respected attorney for 10 groundwater districts including the ill-fated (thanks to the Legislature) Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, was superb. Trejo points out that local groundwater districts, as the Legislature’s “preferred managers” of groundwater, have gaping wounds that threaten their very existence. Will the Legislature finally gets its act together to protect the most precious resource in Texas and Planet Earth?

Perennial aquifer advocate and LIV co-founder, Lee countian Michele Gangnes observed after Tuesday’s hearing that, after hoping for the best on assuring groundwater sustainability in every session since the late 1990’s, she has realistic hopes that the 2027 session will be a “watershed moment” for our precious aquifers. “For years, groundwater transfers to growth areas have been promoted for the “greater good”, despite assuring urban winners and rural losers, and without regard for sustainability of the resource. The Committee seemed receptive to building on advances in hydrological science and data collection that vindicate common sense --- our groundwater cannot be depleted at whatever pace unfettered growth demands without dire consequences for future generations. After all, our grandkids are the epitome of the definition of ‘sustainability’. Seasoned and new committee members seemed to get it at Tuesday’s hearing,” Gangnes said.

Interim sessions are traditionally where expectations and hope arise. When the Legislature gets together the next year, the realities of power and money washes over common sense and common need. Independent political options can change that reality if we listen to a higher power. That would be the force of nature and some would say, the almighty.

Scroll to 5:40:58 HERE. Note that it's true that Robert Mace boiled it down, he provided a very full testimony just before Trejo's. It's also worth your time, as always.

THIS KXAN article is a good summary of the hearing.