Groundwater Management Area (GMA) FAQs
- What happens to the areas in a groundwater management area that do not have a groundwater conservation district? Do they have representation in the groundwater management area? Do they have a reason to be represented?
- Who is a person with a legally defined interest in groundwater?
- Is the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District considered part of the groundwater management area for joint planning purposes?
- What will the TWDB do if a groundwater management area is sued?
- Who is officially represented in the groundwater management area?
- If a minor aquifer is present in one District and in no other, can the other Districts in the groundwater management area dictate how that aquifer should be managed?
- How much notice is required for posting a meeting?
- What posting requirements apply to a groundwater management area to hold meetings? Do groundwater management area meetings have to be posted? What are the posting rules?
- Does the TWDB have to make a decision when a petition is filed against the reasonableness of the groundwater management area's desired future conditions? Can the decision be that the petition is not valid or with merit? Can the decision be that the contents of the petition have already been previously addressed?
- What happens when groundwater management areas having aquifers straddling management area boundaries disagree on future desired conditions, how do they resolve their differences or do they have to resolve the differences?
- Is there any money available to the districts or groundwater management areas to implement the new statute?
- Does someone outside a groundwater conservation district have a legally defined interest in the groundwater within the district?
- What is the role of TWDB in the joint planning process?
- What TWDB resources and assistance are available to the groundwater management area?
- Is the TWDB going to make administrative rules specifically for the joint planning process?
- The TWDB allowed RWPGs to name their regions. Can a groundwater management area group officially name their groundwater management area?
- How do I file a petition with the TWDB?
- Who can be a voting member for joint planning in a groundwater management area?
- What is the legal consequence of a Groundwater Conservation District not participating in joint planning in the GMA?
- Who has the legal authority to enforce participation in a GMA?
- Is it mandatory for each district to sign an Interlocal Agreement the GMA is recommending?
- What is a "geographic area"?
- Can one person represent two districts on a GMA group, such as a common general manager's appointment by two boards? In addition, would this give the representative two votes?
- Whom should I contact for more information about the joint planning process?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
1. What happens to the areas in a groundwater management area that do not have a groundwater conservation district? Do they have representation in the groundwater management area? Do they have a reason to be represented?
Statute does not provide representation to areas in a groundwater management area that lie outside of a groundwater conservation district. Thus, any area outside of a district does not have representation in groundwater management area matters. Districts in some groundwater management areas are including nonvoting representation from areas without districts. Note that desired future condition statements will be used to calculate modeled available groundwater for the entire area covered by the desired future condition statement, including areas with no groundwater conservation districts. Modeled available groundwater values for the groundwater management area (including non-district areas) will be used by regional water planning groups in their plans.
2. Who is a person with a legally defined interest in groundwater?
Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code does not define "a person with a legally defined interest in groundwater." For guidance, the TWDB has defined the term in its rules as: a person or entity that owns or leases land or rights to groundwater in a groundwater management area, uses a well for beneficial use in a groundwater management area, or has current or pending authorization from a district to produce groundwater (Texas Administrative Code §356.10(17)).
3. Is the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District considered part of the groundwater management area for joint planning purposes?
The Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District is a Chapter 36, Texas Water Code, district vested with all the rights and privileges of a groundwater conservation district. It is required, therefore, to participate in all joint planning activities within its groundwater management area.
4. What will the TWDB do if a groundwater management area is sued?
The TWDB does not believe a groundwater management area is a legal entity or "person" that can be sued. It is merely an area drawn by the Board pursuant to statutory requirements. Therefore, the Board does not believe it is possible to sue a groundwater management area, since there is no governing body or legal representative to sue.
5. Who is officially represented in the groundwater management area?
The joint planning required of the groundwater conservation districts in a groundwater management area is to be conducted by district representatives (Texas Water Code §36.108(c)).
6. If a minor aquifer is present in one District and in no other, can the other Districts in the groundwater management area dictate how that aquifer should be managed?
Texas Water Code §36.108(d) states that all districts in a groundwater management area must meet and establish desired future conditions for the relevant aquifers within the management area. It goes on to state that the districts may establish different desired future conditions for each aquifer or geographic area. The majority of the districts in the management area must agree as to how the aquifer is managed, as statue requires the desired future conditions to be approved by a two-thirds vote of all the districts within the management area.
7. How much notice is required for posting a meeting?
Notice of a joint planning meeting must be provided at least 10 days before the date of the meeting.
8. What posting requirements apply to a groundwater management area to hold meetings? Do groundwater management area meetings have to be posted? What are the posting rules?
Statute requires that joint planning meetings be held in accordance with Chapter 551, Government Code. Furthermore, statute requires that each district comply with Chapter 552, Government Code. Notice of the joint planning meeting must be provided at least 10 dyas before the meeting by: providing notice to the secretary of state; providing notice to the county clerk of each county located wholly or partly in a district within the management area; and posting notice at the district office of each district within the management area (Texas Water Code §36.108(e)).
9. Does the TWDB have to make a decision when a petition is filed against the reasonableness of the groundwater management area's desired future conditions? Can the decision be that the petition is not valid or with merit? Can the decision be that the contents of the petition have already been previously addressed?
The law requires the TWDB to review the petition. To be eligible for review, the petition must meet all the requirements in Texas Administrative Code §356.41, the issues raised in the petition may not have been previously considered by the board for the particular desired future condition and the petition must be submitted to TWDB within 120 days following the date the districts in the groundwater management area collectively adopt the desired future condition. If the petition meets the eligibility requirements, then the TWDB must hold at least one public hearing at a central location within the groundwater management area. The TWDB must then determine if a reasonable desired future condition was established. If the TWDB finds that the desired future condition is not reasonable, the TWDB will submit a report to the districts that includes a list of findings and recommended revisions that would make the desired future condition reasonable.
10. What happens when groundwater management areas having aquifers straddling management area boundaries disagree on future desired conditions? How do they resolve their differences or do they have to resolve the differences?
There is no requirement for groundwater conservation districts to cooperate or coordinate their desired future conditions across groundwater management areas. However, a groundwater conservation district adjacent to a groundwater management area may file a petition with TWDB that appeals the approval of a desired future condition adopted by the groundwater conservation districts in that groundwater management area. TWDB staff encourages groundwater conservation districts in groundwater management areas to consider the interests of districts in neighboring groundwater management areas while developing desired future conditions.
11. Is there any money available to the districts or groundwater management areas to implement the new statute?
Legislature did not appropriate funds to the TWDB to make available to the districts or the groundwater management areas for use in implementing changes in the law.
12. Does someone outside a groundwater conservation district have a legally defined interest in the groundwater within the district?
Texas Administrative Code §356.10 defines a person with a legally defined interest in groundwater as: a person or entity that owns or leases land or rights to groundwater in a groundwater management area, uses a well for beneficial use in a groundwater management area, or has current or pending authorization from a district to produce groundwater. Therefore, someone outside a groundwater conservation district can have a legally defined interest in the groundwater within the district.
13. What is the role of TWDB in the joint planning process?
The TWDB plays a support role in the joint planning process. The districts are responsible for the joint planning. The TWDB is responsible for providing districts their modeled available groundwater numbers based on the desired future conditions established by the districts in the groundwater management area (Texas Water Code §36.1084(b)). The TWDB is also responsible for reviewing and hearing petitions on the reasonableness of the desired future conditions (Texas Water Code §36.1083(c)) and facilitating coordination between affected parties and resolving conflicts (Texas Water Code §16.053(p)). The TWDB is also available to provide training and assistance to a district on data collection and reporting (Texas Administrative Code §356.61).
14. What TWDB resources and assistance are available to the groundwater management area?
The TWDB is available to assist districts in determining their desired future conditions. This assistance is available by having TWDB staff attend joint planning meetings and in reviewing, as needed, groundwater availability model runs and other assessments to evaluate draft desired future conditions statements.
15. Is the TWDB going to make administrative rules specifically for the joint planning process?
Districts are responsible for conducting the joint planning process as outlined in Texas Water Code §36.108. TWDB has administrative rules relating to the submission of desired future conditions (Texas Administrative Code §356.30-§356.35) and relating to appealing the adoption of desired future conditions (Texas Administrative Code §356.40-§356.46).)
16. The TWDB allowed RWPGs to name their regions. Can a groundwater management area group officially name their groundwater management area?
The law is silent on this matter. The districts may name the groundwater management areas but the TWDB will likely retain the current designations on official documents and maps.
17. How do I file a petition with the TWDB?
TWDB rules (Texas Administrative Code §356.41–.46) describe the process for filing a petition. These rules can be viewed here: http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.ViewTAC?tac_view=5&ti=31&pt=10&ch=356&sch=D&rl=Y.
18. Who can be a voting member for joint planning in a groundwater management area?
The voting members of a groundwater management area include the district representative of each groundwater conservation district located in whole or partly within the groundwater management area (Texas Water Code §36.108(c)).
19. What is the legal consequence of a Groundwater Conservation District not participating in joint planning in the GMA?
While nothing is explicitly stated in statute about this, it appears there are a couple of consequences. First, the district would still be required to abide by the desired future conditions that they were not a part of selecting. In addition, Texas Water Code §36.1082 allows an “affected person" to file a petition with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to request an inquiry. The inquiry may be for the following reasons related to joint planning: the district failed to participate in the joint planning process under Section 36.108, the district failed to adopt the applicable desired future conditions adopted by the management area, the district failed to update its management plan before the second anniversary of the adoption of desired future conditions by the management area, the district failed to update its rules to implement the applicable desired future conditions before the first anniversary of the date it updated its management plan with adopted desired future conditions, the rules adopted by a district are not designed to achieve the desired future conditions adopted by the management area, the groundwater is not adequately protected by the rules adopted by a district, or the district failed to adequately enforce its rules. .
20. Who has the legal authority to enforce participation in a GMA?
The provisions cited above appear to be the legal authority for enforcing joint planning. Districts are members of GMAs pursuant to the TWDB's authority to designate GMAs under the Texas Water Code §35.004.
21. Is it mandatory for each district to sign an Interlocal Agreement the GMA is recommending?
Statute does not require a specific approach be used to perform joint planning. Therefore, it is up to the districts to determine how to jointly plan for the desired future conditions. The interlocal agreement might specify such conditions as to whether or not each district must agree to sign the interlocal, but the TWDB would have no jurisdiction over this.
22. What is a "geographic area"?
Statute does not directly define the term “geographic area." Texas Water Code §36.108(d)(1) states that the districts shall consider "aquifer uses or conditions within the management area, including conditions that differ substantially from one geographic area to another.” Texas Water Code §36.108(d-1)(2) states that different desired future conditions may be established for "each geographic area overlying an aquifer in whole or in part or subdivision of an aquifer within the boundaries of the management area."
23. Can one person represent two districts on a GMA group, such as a common general manager's appointment by two boards? In addition, would this give the representative two votes?
Statute is silent on this issue. Therefore, it is up to the districts if they want to do this.
24. Whom should I contact for more information about the joint planning process?
The Groundwater Technical Assistance team will be happy to answer any questions you may have about joint planning. Contact us at 512-936-0817.