Lufkin, Texas (KLTV) – A lawsuit settlement currently in the works could halt a plan to pump billions of gallons of water out of East Texas. The suit was filed by Wayne Sanderson Farms, one of the largest poultry producers in the country.
The Neches & Trinity Groundwater Conservation District is allowing its lawyers to settle the lawsuit filed by the poultry farm. It comes after a Dallas-area company was given preliminary approval to install 40 high-capacity water wells above the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer. Wayne Sanderson Farms says these wells would hurt its business, with processing plants in Tyler and Palestine. Hundreds of family farms also rely on that groundwater – and many of those farms are also named as plaintiffs in the suit. In Sanderson’s lawsuit against Conservation Equity Management, they cite a conflict of interest and an ineligible board member.
The settlement reverses the original decision on the project permits, meaning Conservation Equity Management now has to reapply. But the agreement prohibits the district from approving other permits until experts can study the aquifer. That study would determine what kind of pressure the installation of high-capacity wells would put on the aquifer.
Conservation Equity Management has yet to comment on the settlement, or their plans for the project.
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