Texas Lt Gov Dewhurst Takes Appropriate Action on Water Issue

Water rights have been important in Texas and are becoming more important as water will likely spark today’s version of the Sagebrush Rebellion.

Lt. Gov David Dewhurst has asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to defer action on a major water permit application until the Legislature has an opportunity to clarify the Commission’s authority to issue such a permit under Texas water appropriations laws.

The San Marcos River Foundation filed an application for a permit to appropriate up to 1.3 million acre-feet of state water per year from the Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers, solely to maintain freshwater inflows into the Guadalupe Estuary.

Water is already scarce in Texas — to allow what is after all an unbounded desire to preserve the status quo – that is to ensure that past flows continue into the future — is to lock up water that might otherwise be used (especially in drought periods) for farming, cities, power generation, or mining — even recreation and pleasure. It is not clear that those uses are inferior to that pursued by the San Marcos Foundation.

In stream uses of water flows may or may not be a good idea but the essential first step is to determine and clarify the ownership rights of those already entitled to some share of these waters under past legal and administrative actions. These non-economic uses of water may proliferate — imagine a request for a permit to recharge springs or underground lakes to preserver some “endangered species” (the karsts invertebrate, for example).

The intentions of the San Marcos Foundation may be in continuing brackish water in the bays; partly in denying water to urban communities (the Smart Growth strategy) and partly to flex their muscles and gain something else in exchange for letting some water to be allocated somewhere.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst has taken appropriate action to put the CEQ action on hold until the legislature has opportunity to review the potential ramifications of any action the Commission might take, along with their authority to take action on such matters.