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TFB testifies at Waco water hearing...
Without the likelihood of another special session this summer, the committees in the Texas House and Senate have resumed their interim studies. The Senate Select Committee on Water Policy recently held a hearing in Waco to discuss water quality and rural/agriculture groundwater issues. Texas Farm Bureau accepted the invitation of the committee to participate on a panel covering each of these issues.
In the discussion on water quality, most of the testimony was centered around the controversy between the City of Waco and dairies in the North Bosque River Watershed. We provided testimony to the committee detailing the proactive steps taken by the dairy farmers and Texas Farm Bureau to address the pollution problems in the North Bosque—specifically, the digester pilot project to process the manure into compost, remove the phosphorus from the waste water, and create methane gas for electricity production. The committee was told that if this pilot project is successful, the pollution issues associated with the dairy waste will all but disappear, in addition to creating a new revenue source for the dairies through the compost and electricity.
The groundwater panel featured a group of stakeholders that represent all the parties involved in agricultural and rural groundwater use: groundwater conservation districts, water marketers, environmentalists, and agriculture. Texas Farm Bureau was the only stakeholder on the panel that represented production agriculture. We testified on our membership's opposition to repealing the rule of capture. Our testimony, based upon our organization's policy, supported the creation of groundwater conservation districts as the only acceptable alternative to the rule of capture. We asked the committee members to allow these districts, many of them created within the last few years, an opportunity to work. Water marketers are currently criticizing all districts based on the actions of only a few districts. The marketers are asking for more state mandates on how these districts must allocate groundwater rights. Texas Farm Bureau testified in support of these districts and their ability to manage the groundwater to benefit the local area.
The select committee will adopt recommendations in September on changes they feel are needed to the state's water law. These recommendations will be published in a report to the other members of the Texas Senate, and it will also be given to the Texas House of Representatives. The first step in influencing the decisions the legislature will make in the session of 2005 is to prevent recommendations we oppose from being adopted in these interim reports. Even though the legislature only meets in session every other year, the process of advocating our organi-zation's policy never ends.
