WestWater joined Texas water regulators, attorneys, hydrogeologists, and other water professionals in San Antonio for the 14th Annual Texas Groundwater Summit, hosted by the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts (TAGD). This year’s event came on the heels of significant legislative activity, including the signing of a landmark bill that allocates $1 billion annually for the next 20 years to support water infrastructure and new supply development in Texas.
The conference covered a wide range of issues central to groundwater management in the state, ranging from the most recent legislative session, litigation developments, groundwater data and science, landowner rights, and groundwater regulation.
Here are a few of the emergent themes that caught our attention:
- Brackish groundwater is coming into the spotlight. With many groundwater districts approaching full permitting of their Modeled Available Groundwater for fresh groundwater supplies, the Legislature has given a big lift to saltier groundwater in the hopes that future development will tap into this formerly less economical resource. While Senate Bill 7 and House Joint Resolution 7 limit the use of state funding for conveyance projects that move fresh groundwater supplies, the bills direct the Texas Water Development Board to prioritize funding for brackish supplies, which they define as 3,000 parts per million and above in Total Dissolved Solids. The path to permitting brackish supplies has its own rocky patches. Both groundwater districts and developers need more data to identify economical supplies and to understand how production from brackish zones might affect reliability of freshwater supplies that are hydraulically connected. Despite these challenges, the consensus is that Texas will see a proliferation of brackish groundwater projects in the coming years.
- Groundwater districts are deploying a wider range of tools to adaptively manage limited supplies. A growing number of large-scale production permits sourcing water for the Texas Triangle (the area encompassing Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin-San Antonio and Houston, home to roughly 68% of the state’s population) are driving innovation in groundwater management. Groundwater districts with large production and export permits will see a dramatic increase in revenues from fees paid by project developers in the coming years. These fees can be used for a broad set of management needs, from science to mitigation for affected landowners. Groundwater districts can even use some of these fees for demand management programs and supply augmentation. Some are exploring the role of markets to help them manage the resource. Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District’s voluntary leasing program pays landowners not to lease their groundwater for production, building on the success of the Edwards Aquifer Authority’s voluntary irrigation suspension program. Pricing payments to landowners is an art that will evolve with time, as groundwater districts learn more about the markets they are helping to create and monitor aquifer responses.
- The economics of groundwater choices are on everyone’s mind. Groundwater districts are required to consider the socio-economic impact of the groundwater metrics they adopt. These impacts include both the local impacts of production (for example, the cost to landowners of deepening wells) and the regional impacts of limiting production (for example, the replacement cost to industrial users planning on water exported to their facility from the district). Despite being a required factor for consideration in the five-year Groundwater Management Area planning process, socio-economic modeling is one of the less developed areas of groundwater management in the state. With numerous socio-economic impact analyses we have conducted for groundwater and surface water managers across the West, WestWater Research looks forward to supporting the evolution of this practice around the state.
WestWater Research helps clients from a broad range of sectors use financial and economic tools to manage, develop and secure water. While we are known by many for our water rights valuation services, our team brings deep economic and financial expertise to serve our clients in other needs as well. From designing markets for water resources, to evaluating the financial feasibility of “the next source of water,” to procuring water for clients, when it comes to water, our team has a diverse skillset to support complex decision-making.
Interested in learning more about the ways that WestWater Research helps our clients navigate the world of groundwater development and management here in Texas? Reach out to Sharlene Leurig, our Texas Regional Director to learn more.