{"id":241975,"date":"2026-04-09T12:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241975\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:56:09","slug":"texas-water-rights-and-water-laws-are-the-wild-west-texas-judge-says-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241975\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas water rights and water laws are ‘the wild west,’ Texas judge says | Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

(The Center Square) \u2013\u00a0Unless the legislature acts to protect Texans\u2019 water rights, rural Texans will lose everything, their land, their cattle, their livelihoods, south Texas judges argued at a recent townhall meeting<\/a> in Goliad, Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bee County Judge George Morrill said that no state authority is enforcing water rights. Water rights exist in the Texas Constitution but no one is enforcing and protecting them, he said.<\/p>\n

The situation is difficult for county leaders because counties don\u2019t provide water to residents, municipalities do, he said. Most in the region buy their water from Corpus Christi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some, not all, counties have groundwater conservation districts. The goal of the district and the purpose of law enacted by the legislature establishing them \u201cis wildly different than what our current need actually is,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need policemen to make sure that all of us get water when the faucets are turned on. And that’s not the purpose of the groundwater conservation districts. It’s permitting, restrictions, meaningful use, but when it comes to territorial issues, it’s the wild west. It\u2019s only going to get worse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city of Beeville is on the Corpus Christi system and pulls its water from the Nueces River. It used to get its water from Lake Corpus Christi but the lake last year was at 30% capacity. As of January, the combined capacity of Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi was 10%, the lowest level in history, according<\/a> to Corpus Christi data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last fall, Beeville began operating under Stage 3 of its drought contingency plan, the most severe level, and imposed mandatory restrictions. It also began the process to switch from using surface water to groundwater. It began rehabilitating two capped wells, drilling two more and using reverse osmosis to make the brackish water usable, the Municipal Magazine reported.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Beeville has done a good job,\u201d Morrill said. \u201cThey’ve got brackish water wells that they’re drilling right now.\u201d But the best solution is rain, he said. Many residents are hoping El Ni\u00f1o will hit this year and reverse the drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is unlikely, NOAA explains<\/a>. \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o patterns can become drought busters for the Southern U.S. But \u201cone good year won\u2019t eliminate six years of water deficit,\u201d even with significant flooding. Six years of drought has resulted in low reservoirs, low streamflow and low aquifers and it will take more than one wet year to refill them, the agency says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lakes are a big issue. They’re very low and they’re not being replenished,\u201d Morrill said. \u201cGroundwater is for those of us that are landlocked, is the reasonable solution but it\u2019s incredibly expensive.\u201d The city of Beeville spent more than $32 million to build four wells, he said. \u201cThe economics are really tough for most of us in rural counties. Our economies are not as other counties when it comes to industrial development, when it comes to tax base, when it comes to users. This issue is going to continue to be an increasing concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrill also said the costs to keep rural water development corporations running \u201cis untenable for most communities.\u201d The rates customers pay only cover operational costs, not maintenance, he explained. Over the last five or six years, Bee County has directed millions of dollars to water development entities to maintain systems and comply with state requirements \u201cto be able to just simply get water coming out of the faucets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the responsibility to fix the water problem in Texas lies with the state legislature and governor. \u201cAll counties and all municipalities are subdivisions of the state. Our authority starts with the Texas Constitution and goes to the state legislature,\u201d he said. The legislature and governor are responsible for establishing a level playing field, to say, \u2018These are the rules that the counties are going to abide by,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe don’t have that. Until we do, it’s going to continue to be a free for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He and other judges are calling on the legislature to act but their state lawmakers, Republicans state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and state Rep. AJ Lauderback, didn\u2019t attend the meeting. When residents asked if their staff attended, the judges said they were invited but none addressed concerns raised by attendees.<\/p>\n

Refugio County Judge Jhiela “Gigi” Poynter agreed with Morrill, saying, \u201cWe hope for the best, but we prepare for the worst. That’s why we’re all here because we recognize that help may not come.\u201d Waiting for Corpus to approve a desalination plant project or \u201cto do the right thing\u201d and \u201cbeing patient is what got us into this mess. They are the Goliath in the room,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To counter Goliath, \u201cWe don\u2019t need 50 Davids running around. We are collectively a large voting block. We’re only going to get somewhere if we band together. Judge Morrill hit the nail on the head when he said water rights and water laws are the wild, wild west.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If they do nothing others will keep taking their water, she said, which is why they are working on a solution and demanding the legislature and governor act.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013\u00a0Unless the legislature acts to protect Texans\u2019 water rights, rural Texans will lose everything, their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2389,9488,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-241975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-agriculture","tag-general","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}