but Mark Twain says it best...
“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.”
Pay attention people...YOUR future depends on it.
Read about YOUR Water in the FW Weekly. Kudos to them for bringing OUR water up again. Too bad other "news" sources aren't concerned.
Showing posts with label Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
WHO's Water is it?
WHO besides Texas Lone Star is worried about YOUR water?
Lots of folks.
Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. YOU can't afford not to.
But rancher J.K. "Rooter" Brite Jr. is worried -- worried that the courts, legislators or groundwater districts might take that water right away.
Brite, 58, isn't opposed to all regulation -- he doesn't approve of water marketers like billionaire Boone Pickens sucking aquifers dry, and he believes that groundwater districts can provide some protection from the oil and gas industry -- but he said strict groundwater-use regulations could cripple his ranching operation during a drought.
"If that right doesn't belong to me, and I do benefit because I know it's in reserve, then what incentive do I have to care for this land?" Brite said as he drove his pickup through tall stands of native grasses on his 3,400-acre ranch outside Bowie.
Restricting access to groundwater would discourage good range management practices that lead to less silt downstream in the Trinity River as it flows into Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake, he said.
"I guarantee you this soil will move if you don't protect it," said Brite, who serves as vice chairman of an agricultural research committee for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
A pending case, Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel, has been going on for over a decade and wrestles with the issue of who owns the groundwater underneath land.
The case has been heard by the Texas Supreme Court and may eventually affect the state's interpretation of groundwater rights.
A brief by Austin attorney Paul Terrill on behalf of a Medina County client, who also has a claim against the aquifer authority, argued that the Supreme Court "should reaffirm the clear principle that landowners have vested property rights in groundwater and reject [the aquifer authority] and the State's attempt to reverse a century of precedent and make it so that no government is ever required to pay just compensation for taking groundwater from a landowner."
Another case that concerns landowners is State of Texas v. 7KX Investments, in which land was condemned for a Texas Department of Transportation rest stop along I-35 south of Salado. The owners of the property argued that there was a vested groundwater right with the property and a jury agreed, saying it was worth $5 million.
The state has appealed, and Attorney General Greg Abbott argued in his appellate brief that under Texas' rule of capture law "a landowner does not have a vested and constitutionally protected interest in groundwater."
Any legislative action is unlikely until the Supreme Court rules on the Edwards Aquifer Authority case.
"I think everybody sees this as the big one; it's been before the Supreme Court and everybody has been waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court for months now," said Ken Kramer, executive director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Locally, groundwater districts became a political issue this year in the Republican primary race for Parker County judge, when challenger Cary McKay accused County Judge Mark Riley of bringing unwanted regulation to the county with the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District.
At the time the Upper Trinity district was formed, Parker County officials said the state was forcing them to join a groundwater district and the formation of Upper Trinity was viewed as better than being placed in a district with Dallas and Tarrant counties, where they felt their concerns would lost to the bigger cities.
But Brite feels the same way about Upper Trinity, which stretches all the way north to include Montague County, where his ranch is located. He believes Montague County's groundwater planning has little in common with Parker and Wise counties, which have become more suburban over the last decade.
Lots of folks.
Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. YOU can't afford not to.
But rancher J.K. "Rooter" Brite Jr. is worried -- worried that the courts, legislators or groundwater districts might take that water right away.
Brite, 58, isn't opposed to all regulation -- he doesn't approve of water marketers like billionaire Boone Pickens sucking aquifers dry, and he believes that groundwater districts can provide some protection from the oil and gas industry -- but he said strict groundwater-use regulations could cripple his ranching operation during a drought.
"If that right doesn't belong to me, and I do benefit because I know it's in reserve, then what incentive do I have to care for this land?" Brite said as he drove his pickup through tall stands of native grasses on his 3,400-acre ranch outside Bowie.
Restricting access to groundwater would discourage good range management practices that lead to less silt downstream in the Trinity River as it flows into Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake, he said.
"I guarantee you this soil will move if you don't protect it," said Brite, who serves as vice chairman of an agricultural research committee for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
A pending case, Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel, has been going on for over a decade and wrestles with the issue of who owns the groundwater underneath land.
The case has been heard by the Texas Supreme Court and may eventually affect the state's interpretation of groundwater rights.
A brief by Austin attorney Paul Terrill on behalf of a Medina County client, who also has a claim against the aquifer authority, argued that the Supreme Court "should reaffirm the clear principle that landowners have vested property rights in groundwater and reject [the aquifer authority] and the State's attempt to reverse a century of precedent and make it so that no government is ever required to pay just compensation for taking groundwater from a landowner."
Another case that concerns landowners is State of Texas v. 7KX Investments, in which land was condemned for a Texas Department of Transportation rest stop along I-35 south of Salado. The owners of the property argued that there was a vested groundwater right with the property and a jury agreed, saying it was worth $5 million.
The state has appealed, and Attorney General Greg Abbott argued in his appellate brief that under Texas' rule of capture law "a landowner does not have a vested and constitutionally protected interest in groundwater."
Any legislative action is unlikely until the Supreme Court rules on the Edwards Aquifer Authority case.
"I think everybody sees this as the big one; it's been before the Supreme Court and everybody has been waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court for months now," said Ken Kramer, executive director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Locally, groundwater districts became a political issue this year in the Republican primary race for Parker County judge, when challenger Cary McKay accused County Judge Mark Riley of bringing unwanted regulation to the county with the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District.
At the time the Upper Trinity district was formed, Parker County officials said the state was forcing them to join a groundwater district and the formation of Upper Trinity was viewed as better than being placed in a district with Dallas and Tarrant counties, where they felt their concerns would lost to the bigger cities.
But Brite feels the same way about Upper Trinity, which stretches all the way north to include Montague County, where his ranch is located. He believes Montague County's groundwater planning has little in common with Parker and Wise counties, which have become more suburban over the last decade.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Tarrant County - YOU are next
The Wise County Messenger and its readers know. WHY don't YOU?
WHAT will you do when YOU have NO clean water? Of course the "spokesperson" says there "are no documented cases of groundwater pollution". THE PEOPLE are tired of hearing this when they know if you don't do testing, you don't have documentation. Therefore, THE PEOPLE are having their own water tested, it's documented. Would the Texas Railroad Commission like a copy? Maybe the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District?
Remember what happens when "nothing was ever done", it just gets worse.
Read the article here. YOU can't afford not to. Be sure and read the comments from THE PEOPLE.
"I've got two so salty you can't drink the water from them," he said. "It wasn't until they drilled a gas well across from my home that they went bad. They also put an injection well about a quarter-mile down the road.
"I've been having to haul in drinking water. That's pretty bad when the well man is buying bottled water."
"That service pipe has to be deep enough or else it's gonna leak up through the strata. I don't know why people can't see that."
The couple decided to get the water analyzed by a private firm.
"I didn't know what it was we were looking for," Brett said. "I just wanted to know why it was burning my eyes before I ever even used soap. I was also concerned about the animals.
"We weren't expecting anything bad. Then we got the test back and were shocked because it had benzene in the water."
The amount of benzene, a carcinogen, was twice the level considered safe by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
"It also isn't supposed to have MTBE in it, but it does," he said.
After finding toxins in their rural water well, they've received little help from state or local agencies. They appealed once to the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (UTGCD), but they said nothing was done.
"We're very concerned with any instance of possible contamination of a water well," said Bob Patterson, general manager of the district. "We're pretty anxious to get some more information on it."
WHAT will you do when YOU have NO clean water? Of course the "spokesperson" says there "are no documented cases of groundwater pollution". THE PEOPLE are tired of hearing this when they know if you don't do testing, you don't have documentation. Therefore, THE PEOPLE are having their own water tested, it's documented. Would the Texas Railroad Commission like a copy? Maybe the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District?
Remember what happens when "nothing was ever done", it just gets worse.
Read the article here. YOU can't afford not to. Be sure and read the comments from THE PEOPLE.
"I've got two so salty you can't drink the water from them," he said. "It wasn't until they drilled a gas well across from my home that they went bad. They also put an injection well about a quarter-mile down the road.
"I've been having to haul in drinking water. That's pretty bad when the well man is buying bottled water."
"That service pipe has to be deep enough or else it's gonna leak up through the strata. I don't know why people can't see that."
The couple decided to get the water analyzed by a private firm.
"I didn't know what it was we were looking for," Brett said. "I just wanted to know why it was burning my eyes before I ever even used soap. I was also concerned about the animals.
"We weren't expecting anything bad. Then we got the test back and were shocked because it had benzene in the water."
The amount of benzene, a carcinogen, was twice the level considered safe by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
"It also isn't supposed to have MTBE in it, but it does," he said.
After finding toxins in their rural water well, they've received little help from state or local agencies. They appealed once to the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (UTGCD), but they said nothing was done.
"We're very concerned with any instance of possible contamination of a water well," said Bob Patterson, general manager of the district. "We're pretty anxious to get some more information on it."
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