texas groundwater news june 2018

Pipeline leaks; rancher reports; company delays reporting leak; judge says the company should be fined; Railroad Commission doesn’t fine (and chews out staff): https://www.mystatesman.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/why-texas-officials-decided-not-levy-penalties-after-pipeline-leak/HyOfo4fe4nBAewoeWeM6XO/

Movement on Electro-Purification’s permit from the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District:

You should visit The Meadows Center and take a glass-bottom boat tour: https://scadconnector.com/2018/06/10/stranded-in-texas-part-three-a-glass-bottom-boat-tour-at-the-texas-state-university-meadows-center/

New Mexico’s land commish claims Texas is stealing their groundwater for fracking: http://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/land-commissioner-texans-stealing-aquifer-water-selling-it-for-fracking/1227416573

New Mexico files counterclaims against Texas and the Bureau of Reclamation on the lawsuit concerning water allocations from Elephant Butte Reservoir on the Rio Grande (Texas alleges that 2,500 new wells in the valley has reduced flows in the river for Texas): https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fdc1c7e8-87cd-4710-88e7-54a96db5bd34

Lower Colorado River Authority applied for a permit to pump 25,000 acre-feet per year from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Bastrop County:  https://www.statesman.com/news/local/lcra-asks-drill-eight-water-wells-into-the-simsboro-aquifer/Q4WaeNncs4FAmGRLYAnlpJ/

Water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer continue to decline amid drought: https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2018/0530/Amid-drought-in-Texas-Panhandle-farmers-scratch-crops-from-dust

”Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water and Rural Affairs to examine, ahead of the 2019 legislative session, whether regulations set up by groundwater conservation districts sufficiently protect the rights of landowners to their own groundwater.” http://tpr.org/post/state-lawmakers-who-owns-right-groundwater

Starr County Groundwater Conservation District is found non-compliant: https://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_b30aa554-6611-11e8-84e4-a363ea1cf7e4.html

Do landowners have a right to protest a water permit? https://agrilife.org/texasaglaw/2018/03/05/landowners-right-protest-proposed-water-project/