Dumas-The North Plains Groundwater Conservation District has been selected to receive a Texas Environmental Excellence Award (TEEA) for agriculture from Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The award recognizes the District's leadership in agricultural water conservation through its "Reduced Irrigation on Corn Demonstration Project," also known as the "200-12 Project."

Each year, the TEEA honors the state's most outstanding waste reduction and pollution prevention projects. TEEA began in 1993 and is presented in up to nine diverse categories, ranging from youth projects to agriculture. By honoring the winners, the TCEQ hopes to encourage other citizens to initiate like-minded projects and reinforce a spirit of environmental stewardship.

The "200-12 Project" is beginning its third year of demonstrating how to achieve new levels of irrigation efficiency and groundwater conservation through a comprehensive resource management system. The system uses tried and true methods, combined with the latest technologies to allow agriculture producers to maintain viable production levels, while leaving water in the ground for future generations. The "200-12 Project" strategies are transferrable to other crops," said District General Manager, Steve Walthour. "We believe these strategies could conserve at least 3 inches of water for each irrigated acre." Over the 1,000,000 acres of irrigated crops in the North Plains GCD that savings amounts to 250,000 acre feet of annually. This potential water savings is enough to supply 125,000 Olympic sized swimming pools, a city the size of Dumas for 88 years, a city the size of Amarillo for six years or a city the size of San Antonio for one year.

The "200-12 Project" was started by North Plains GCD board members in 2010 who believed the board should lead the way by showing how water use can be reduced, not just creating rules to limit pumping. "We don't want to tell farmers what to grow, but we do want to show how to conserve, whatever the crop is," said Bob Zimmer, North Plains GCD Board President. The board believed so strongly in this idea that in the first year, three of the board members risked their own acres with no financial protection provided by the program from potential yield losses. In 2011, five more cooperators joined the original board members and the Texas Water Development Board accepted and invitation to provide funding for the project.

Later in 2011, the project gained federal funding jointly with the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation project in Hale and Floyd counties, through the NRCS-ARS Conservation Innovation Grant program. The "200-12 Project" is designed as a five-year demonstration to be completed in the 2014 growing season.

Representatives from the District will receive the award along with other TEEA recipients during a banquet in Austin on May 2. The awards banquet is part of the TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair and Conference.

North Plains GCD Perspective on Decision In EAA v. Day Case

Contact: Kirk Welch 806-935-6401 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dumas-Last week the Texas Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in the Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day case when the Court ruled that groundwater is owned by the landowner. The decision affirmed Senate Bill 332 that amended Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code in 2011 to more clearly define groundwater ownership. The Court's ruling makes clear that the state can regulate groundwater production, which it has chosen to do through groundwater conservation districts, and provides that such regulation is essential to groundwater conservation and use across the state. "The Court's decision confirms North Plains Groundwater Conservation District's long held view that groundwater is private property. Because the district has used this view to develop and enforce its rules, we believe the decision will have little impact on landowners within the district," said Steve Walthour, North Plains GCD General Manager.

The Court focused heavily on the Edwards Aquifer Authority's ("EAA's") permitting system set out in its enabling act by the Texas Legislature. Under EAA's system, if a landowner who does not already hold a permit based on his or her historic use between 1972 and 1993, wanted to drill a well and pump the Edwards aquifer, the owner would need to purchase or lease all or part of another landowner's historic use permit before they could withdraw groundwater. Day originally claimed that 700 acre-feet of groundwater was used during the historical period, but could only prove that seven acres was irrigated directly from the well. The EAA's enabling statute required that Day should receive at least two acre-feet per irrigated acre or 14 acre-feet. Day wanted more water than the 14 acre-foot permit.

The Court's decision does provide that the landowners in the EAA v. Day case own the groundwater and may qualify for compensation based on a takings claim. According to case law a takings claim may occur when the regulation goes too far, so as to deprive the property owner of all reasonable use or value of the property. The Court does not address the merits of the takings claim because the lower court had not developed a sufficient record to do so. This means that Day will now go through another round of litigation to determine whether a taking by the EAA that requires compensation occurred and the amount of compensation, if any, is due Day. The claim will be subjected to the complex takings analysis test created by the Texas Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court discussed the test that will be used to determine whether an actual taking that requires compensation occurred and added that this review is based on the facts of each case and that all of the circumstances surrounding the EAA's groundwater regulation must be considered to determine whether the regulation is reasonable.

Created in 1955 by local residents and confirmed by the Texas Legislature, the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District is charged with the responsibility of conserving, preserving, protecting, and preventing waste of groundwater within its eight-county service area in the northern Texas Panhandle.

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