Letter to the editor: Government vs people of Montgomery County
FROM CONROE COURIER – Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2015 6:12 pm
To the editor:
The good news is we don’t have a water problem in Montgomery County. The bad news is the government (San Jacinto River Authority and Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District) had a solution and needed a problem; and we the people of Montgomery County have allowed the government to take our water rights.
As the owner of Quadvest, the third-largest water provider in Montgomery County, and from a family that has owned land in Montgomery County since the 1860s, I have firsthand experience with the government’s “takings” of our water rights in Montgomery County. Groundwater is private property and protected by the Constitution. In the most important water case in 100 years, Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day, the Texas Supreme Court said, “We decide in this case whether land ownership includes an interest in groundwater in place that cannot be taken for public use without adequate compensation guaranteed by article I, section 17(a) of the Texas Constitution. We hold that it does.”
For this reason, many of us have joined together and formed a “coalition.” The coalition is comprised of cities, municipal utility districts, community groups, private water providers, land owners and large national corporations focused on challenging the “takings” of our private property rights.
The government has acted like all well-meaning government bureaucracies act. They want to build their empires and control whatever it is that they are charged with regulating. How many times have we ever seen a government agency decide on its own that it is not needed, reduce its budget and staff, and shrink itself for the greater good? So, the government decided that the people of Montgomery County can pump only 64,000 acre-feet of water out of the ground each year. Harris County pumps approximately 250,000. acre-feet per year of water out of the same aquifer system, and Montgomery County is the only county in a 16-county area that has a cap on water production.
Why? Does the government want our neighboring counties to be able to take water out of our aquifer? The 64,000 acre-feet per year scam, or scheme, depending on what side you are on, is the source of the water wars in Montgomery County. The 64,000 acre-feet of water also happens to be the approximate amount of water that was being pumped out of the aquifers in Montgomery County when this plan was hatched.
Coincidence? The government declared that the people were pumping “too much” groundwater. The solution the government devised was to build a $550 million surface-water facility in Montgomery County, and pay for it by taxing all of us through our monthly water bill. But everything hinges on the 64,000 acre-feet per year imposed limit; without that, this plan falls apart, bureaucrats lose their jobs, and the lawyers, consultants and contractors have no work.
Government bureaucrats are very smart. They know that if they start off with a small tax and grow it over time, we will get used to it and be less likely to complain. But, the government’s plan relies on a problem with the aquifer and the seizure of our water rights, hence the 64,000 acre-feet per year pumping limit.
Most of us would agree that we don’t want to destroy the aquifer. But according to the best available science and recent studies, the Gulf Coast aquifer stores about 180,000,000 acre-feet of water in Montgomery County, and that vast number does not include the recently tapped Catahoula aquifer, recharge or other inflows. Other water experts believe we have more than a 100-year, drought-proof water supply with projected population growth. And, of course, our aquifers are not somehow magically confined to Montgomery County by county line boundaries. The aquifers stretch well beyond our county lines, and our neighboring counties do not have any pumping limits and have every right to pump water (private property) and drain Montgomery County’s aquifers.
Fortunately for all, the coalition has sent a clear message to the government that we will not let this happen without a fight. You undoubtedly will hear about ongoing water wars in this county. Both sides will try to convince you that they are right and maybe even try to scare you into believing that we have an emergency. This seems to be headed toward a long legal battle as both sides are entrenched in their beliefs. But no one should be alarmed; we do not have a water problem in Montgomery County. We only have a problem with the government of our water.
Simon Sequeira, President
Quadvest, L.P.
