Rep. Harris Battles Bass Over Proposed District Wells

By Cody Harris, State Rep. House District 8

Since the discovery of Conservation Equity Management’s applications for permits to drill exploratory wells at the Redtown Ranch and Pine Bliss sites in Anderson and Henderson counties, the ongoing water battle has come close to the boiling point on multiple occasions. On Tuesday, at the State Capitol, temperatures soared again. As Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, I called an investigative hearing to listen to testimony from stakeholders, legal experts, agency heads and policy advisors with the hope of finding a legislative solution to a complicated legal battle over water.

Kyle Bass, the CEO of CEM, wants to drill high capacity water wells across House District 8 with the intent to remove as much as 15 billion gallons of water annually. (This does not include his holdings and planned wells in Houston County which does not have the protection of a Groundwater Conservation District and would mean extracting even greater quantities of water.) He owns the property in question and according to he and his attorney, Ed McCarthy, everything they are doing is completely above board and is as Texas’ law allows.

While the outdated 1904 Rule of Capture in Texas allows for property owners to drill and take what is under the ground, experts in both the law and in water agree that the time has come for a legislative update to protect entire communities from having their water extracted from under them. When that rule was established, it was not designed with high capacity pumps and wells in mind. It was a simple measure to ensure that each property owner would have what they need for their own land.

The continued argument from Bass and McCarthy is that all they have done is submit applications for exploratory wells and that the only intent is to “prove up the science” that they believe shows the aquifer can handle the massive water withdrawals. The Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer is a vital resource for over 60 Texas counties and the current numbers produced by the Bass team do not seem to match up with those at the state level.

The interim hearing was a huge success as stakeholders and agency heads took time to share critical information about the potential devastating effects of moving East Texas water elsewhere. The findings from the hearing are guiding discussions for legislative solutions that I hope to see added to the call for the first special session of the 89th.

When Bass and McCarthy shared their testimony, they clearly aggravated committee members by telling them that the way this was proceeding was essentially the legislature’s fault. McCarthy went so far as to claim that everyone who had spoken ahead of them was providing “hyperbolic” testimony. Bass said he’d read the Texas Water Development Board’s 50-year plan for the state’s water twice before calling it “farcical” and accusing the legislature of not working on expanding water opportunities for the state.

During the 89th legislative session, my committee worked tirelessly to advance legislation that will repair existing infrastructure to save what is being lost every year through leaky pipes as well as shore up funding that is currently falling well below necessary levels to meet water demands as the state population continues to grow at 1,600 new residents a day. We passed SB 7 to allocate $1B a year for the next 20 years. It will require a constitutional amendment. That means voters must pass it in November so that our state can allocate the desperately needed funds to continue expanding our water options. We have worked to explore all options available and many creative solutions to find new and effective resources that can be relied upon moving forward.

I questioned Bass, asking that he consider a hypothetical situation in which the roles were reversed. What would he do if a neighbor decided to drill next to his property and take enough water that would render his wells and water supply ineffective? He told me flatly that he had not thought about that.

This is the problem.

The good news is that we, the people of House District 8 and the Texas House of Representatives, have thought of it and that is why I am working tirelessly to make sure that this type of drilling does not happen. Bass will not be the first or the last to attempt to take our most precious resource out of East Texas. For this reason I will not stop until we can find a legislative solution that will protect our residents and their livelihoods.

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