The groundwater law in Texas for decades has been based on the Common Law, which is commonly referred to as the "Right to Capture Law." This means a landowner can capture and make non-wasteful use of his own groundwater. The Texas Supreme Court has upheld this law.
Now Senate Bill 1 and 2 and Water Code, Chapter 36 will take private property groundwater from individuals and place it, with voter approval, under so-called "local control" into a County Groundwater Conservation District.
The local County Commissioners have already appointed the Directors of the Local County Groundwater Conservation District. However, the vote on the Local District will not be until between September 1, 2001 and January 1, 2002. This Local District must comply with the STATE water plan. So much for so-called "local" control.
A water district is just another created taxing entity that will not and cannot create even one single drop of water. This Water District will set up offices, hire administrators and field employees that will not protect even one drop of groundwater, in fact their job will be to set up a water market and export water to other areas, so we will have less groundwater available locally.
The STATE OF TEXAS now has control of all surface water and if the Local Groundwater Conservation District is voted in, the STATE will have control of the groundwater as well. What you and I get is to be pumped dry of water, pumped dry of money and the last private water in Texas put under STATE control. The fear of water shortages is causing some people to want to vote in a Local County Groundwater Conservation District. In reality, when someone votes for a local District, they are giving away their private property groundwater.
Let me ask you, if the STATE wanted to take your oil, gas, and underground minerals would you object? The obvious answer is YES because of the monetary value. You don’t miss your water until your well goes dry. When you are without water, you will realize how absolutely essential life-giving water is. Your land value is very much decreased when your water is limited. How much is your land worth without water?
The Local County Groundwater Conservation District is claiming the power to levy property taxes so you will be paying them to take your water! The District can negotiate bonds, without voter approval, assess fees for water usage on water wells and require and issue permits for drilling water wells. Fines of $10,000.00 a day can be assessed for permit violations. Water meters can be installed on water wells to regulate water usage.
The District can buy, sell and transport groundwater inside and outside the district and can buy and sell property, build pumping stations and aquifer recharge stations. The Local District can exercise Eminent Domain control over your property and I can tell you from personal experience that Eminent Domain means that they can take your private property and pay you the amount THEY say it is worth.
The Local County Groundwater Conservation District, and people must comply with Senate Bill 1 and 2, the TEXAS WATER CODE, the rules and regulations of the TEXAS NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION COMMITTEE, the TEXAS WATER DEVELOPMENT BOARD, the TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT, the ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, and it is then placed under the rule of a State-appointed WATER MASTER who exercises broad authority over the Local District.
So where is the "local control" that is supposed to occur by forming the Local District? The TEXAS WATER DEVELOPMENT BOARD council members are appointed, so there is no local control. The council will secure financing and manage surface and groundwater, protect the environment and fish and wildlife habitat and also coordinate a unified STATE position on FEDERAL and INTERNATIONAL water issues. Again local control is not even considered.
The District says that water wells that produce less than 25,000 gallons of water a day will be exempt. But exempt from what? They are not exempt from their spacing requirements and they are not exempt from their many rules and regulations. The District says written authorization must be received before a new water well is drilled or an existing water well is substantially altered. The Local District will adapt any rules necessary for the assessment and collection of fees. The local water District plans shall not conflict with the STATE water plan. The local District may not deny a permit based on the fact that the applicant seeks to transfer groundwater outside the local District. The Local Groundwater Directors or their designees have the authority to enter any public or private property located within the District to inspect a water well.
Senate Bill #1911 now allows the STATE to change any of the rules in Chapter 36 of the TEXAS WATER CODE that governs Local County Groundwater Conservation Districts anytime that they want to, without We The People having a voice about it. If the Local County Groundwater Conservation District is defeated this year further elections will be held every year through September 2006, or until it passes. Immediately after the election, the presiding judge of each poling place will deliver the returns of the election to the temporary board and the board will canvass the returns and declare the results. If a majority of the vote cast at the election favor the creation of the District, the temporary board will declare the District created.
The creation of the Local County Groundwater Conservation District will be the creation of a large, expensive bureaucracy, an agency that will not be subject to the People, yet will have the power to take private land and private property groundwater through Eminent Domain and the power to assess and collect taxes on previously untaxed private water. The rights, powers, privileges, authority, functions and duties of the Local County Groundwater Conservation District are subject to the continuing right of supervision of the STATE, to be exercised by and through the TEXAS NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION COMMISSION. So again I ask, Where is local control?
If you do not stand up for and claim and retain your private property groundwater, you will soon lose most of it and what you have left will be totally under the control of the STATE OF TEXAS.
The window of opportunity is open now, before the Local County Groundwater Conservation District is voted in. To remain silent and do nothing is the same as giving your God given, life-sustaining private property groundwater to the nameless, faceless, un-elected bureaucrats of the STATE OF TEXAS.
The three step Administrative Process of Notice, Notice of Default, and Affidavit is one way, I believe, that you can use to claim and retain your private property groundwater. [Webmaster's NOTE: Download notices by clicking on the links above.]
Desalinization, drawing fresh, drinkable water out of salty seawater is a very common thing in desert countries. Texas has ready access to the Gulf of Mexico, which has a virtually unlimited supply of water. Using the reverse-osmosis desalinization plants with the new thin composite membranes is economically feasible to extract fresh water from salt water. This is a much better way to get a practically unlimited supply of fresh water than taking it from our private property groundwater, like the STATE OF TEXAS is planning to do.
In the Republic of Texas we will not have those so-called government agencies controlling our private property or our water. We own what is below, on, and above our land.
I believe God is for the Republic of Texas, so no one can stand against
it. God Bless you and God Bless the Republic of Texas.
D.A. West
c/o 2605 FM 622, Victoria
Secretary of Agriculture & Environment
Provisional Government
Republic of Texas