Return to TFB Main Page
Return to Current Edition
Texas Agriculture Archive

July 4, 2003

_{Water Warriors}

Rural areas have the water. Cities want it. Here's a legislative update on this critical resource...

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Representative Robby Cook looks over his lush, green rice fields near Eagle Lake, eagerly anticipating a golden harvest later in the summer. But as a fifth generation farmer and four-term state legislator, thoughts linger that his livelihood could literally evaporate before his eyes.

The issue Representative Cook is most interested in in the state legislature is water, and as Texas' population grows, he is increasingly concerned on meeting the state's needs. And he warns farmers and ranchers across the state that the issue is not one to take lightly.

"Those of us like myself, Rick Hardcastle (House Agriculture and Livestock Committee Chairman) and others that represent rural areas, we're trying to pay attention," Cook said. "We're trying to stir the folks up to realize this is an issue that's here today. It's not 15 years from now.

"The worst case scenario, is that we get into a drought like we had in the '50s, with the economy the size it is in Texas right now...the population we have...every region, every city in the State of Texas is looking at agriculture for their new water supplies. Right now. They're planning. You look at every one of their regional water plans and it's on line.

"Where's the water coming from? It's coming from agriculture. It's coming from rural Texas. And they're going to pay top dollar for it."

Representative Cook said water in Texas will start flowing uphill to where the money is.

"Water has become a huge commodity," he said. It's just the new oil. You're going to see the T. Boone Pickens of the world, you're going to see the larger players of the world, start water ranching. They've already started."

Still, Representative Cook and other rural Texans are holding the line. For example, junior water rights, a concept developed in 1997 in Senate Bill 1, offers strong protection to surface water before it can shift from one basin to the other. Representative Cook said Representative Robert Puente of San Antonio pushed to repeal junior water rights this session, and had the votes to bring it out of the House Natural Resources Committee.

"Ironically, our little trip to Ardmore, we were able to keep junior water rights from coming back. So we kept that protection in place for one more session," Representative Cook said.

The most important piece of water legislation this session dealt with water condemnation.

Pushed by Representative Cook and Representative Pete Geren of Fort Worth on the House side, and Texas Farm Bureau, the legislation addressed situations in Sweetwater and San Angelo where those cities condemned land to get that land's water.

"I think it's (H.B. 803) very important to all property owners so that municipalities cannot come in and just take their land for the water," Representative Geren said. "I don't want to take the ability of the municipalities to condemn away from them, but they need to pay for what they're getting. I think this legislation will effectively solve the Sweetwater type problem, assuming the governor signs it." (Governor Perry signed the bill.)

According to Representative Cook, municipalities must go through a series of checks and balances before the condemnation process starts.

"They have to make sure they have a drought contingency plan in place...make sure that they have looked at every alternative water supply...that they need the water within 10 years, and not 70 years from now when they think they might need it...so we put some checks and balances in place," Representative Cook said.

On the Texas Senate side, Senator Robert Duncan has growing concerns about different attempts to market water. He said one train of thought is the marketplace would be the best place to regulate water.

He looks at it a different way: "If you don't have water in a region or if you lose your water in a region because of a water marketing concept, well that region will eventually dry up, especially if the aquifer is not rechargeable or the exportation of water exceeds the demands in the future for the use of the aquifer locally.

"So I have some real concerns about that, and I think that agriculture and rural Texas are going to have to stick together to maintain authority and control over these water marketing concepts."