GROUNDWATER AVAILABILITY IN TEXAS: LOCAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Historically, Texas surface water and groundwater have been managed and regulated separately, basically ignoring the physical reality of their connectivity. As population growth accelerated, the State established a water planning process, addressing future water supply. Originally a State agency periodically developed a State Water Plan. Currently, a "bottom-up" process is used in which regions of the State develop plans (RWPs) on a 5-year cycle. The RWPs are the basis of the State Water Plan. At the outset of the RWP process, Texas had no specific groundwater planning process. Although the RWP process was tasked with water resource planning based on surface water and groundwater, it was dominated by surface water stakeholders. Within the first cycles of the RWP process, it became apparent changes were needed ensure that the State Water Plan, to the extent it relied on groundwater availability, would be more accurate.

As the RWP process matured, the statutory creation of local groundwater conservation districts (GCDs) burgeoned. These local governmental entities are created to manage and regulate groundwater; therefore, they possess knowledge about local aquifer conditions and groundwater supply, demand, and availability. A groundwater management area (GMA) joint planning process was established. The State is divided into 16 GMAs based primarily on aquifer location. At least every 5 years, the GCDs in a GMA must establish a groundwater management policy for the area; a desired future condition (DFC). Working with the State, the GCDs determine how much groundwater can be used while still attaining the DFC. This groundwater availability or MAG, is to be used in the RWP.

The 1st GMA joint planning cycle ended Sept. 1, 2010. Due to challenges to DFCs, some were not in effect until mid-2012. The RWP cycle ended in 2011 and the State Water Plan was adopted in Jan. 2012. Thus, for many regions, the MAG and other data developed by the GCDs was not included in the RWP or the 2012 State Water Plan. The water resource planning process continues and efforts are being made to better integrate the two separate planning processes.