A bill targeting overpumping in Hays County progresses in the Texas legislature
HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – A bill seeking to charge water wholesalers per gallon of water pumped and curtail them from over-pumping in the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District passed in its committee and is on the Senate calendar for Tuesday.
State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, filed Senate Bill 2660 in part to try to increase the revenue streaming into the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, which covers the western half of Hays County.
“Hays Trinity only gets paid when they install one meter at a time. I think it’s $1,000 – that’s it. That’s all the money they ever get,” said Perry on Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
“[The district] doesn’t have a recurring revenue stream to, one, maintain infrastructure,” he continued. “But most importantly, of late, they don’t have the money to defend lawsuits, because they’ve sued the people who are over-permitting.”
Aqua Texas filed a lawsuit in late 2023 against the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, saying the district had provided “unlawful and unequal treatment of Aqua Texas” as well as a “complete disregard for Aqua’s state law duty to provide ‘continuous and adequate’ water service to its customers,” per court filings.
This lawsuit was filed after the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District accused Aqua Texas of overpumping by almost 90 million gallons of water in 2022, resulting in a nearly $449,000 fine issued against the water provider.
Perry said that if the bill passes, there would be a production fee for water wholesalers to pump water in the district at a rate that would be decided at a later date.
“What you got 1744937669 is some really big water wholesalers that have kind of lucky themselves into this – smart people – and they’re sucking [the acquifer] dry,” Perry said.
Perry said the increased revenue would give the district “the ability to defend themselves against people that are just flagrantly and blatantly violating the very science of how we track aquifers in this state.”
In the Texas House, Rep. Carrie Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, filed a competing bill, HB 2812. If this bill passes, it would allow water wholesalers to be free from regulation when pumping from wells, specifically in the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District.
KXAN reached out to Isaac’s teams and will update this story if we hear back.
