Texas Farmers Battle Ogallala Pumping Limits
FLOYDADA — J.O. Dawdy, who has been a farmer for 36 years, is so worried about getting enough groundwater that he is considering a lawsuit to protect his right to it.
As sleet pounded his West Texas farmhouse one recent afternoon, Dawdy and three other farmers said that new regulations — which limit the amount of water they can withdraw from the Ogallala Aquifer and require that new wells have meters to measure use — could have crippling effects on their livelihoods.
“We view it as a real property-rights violation,” said Dawdy, who grows cotton. If the restrictions had been in place ...

Comments (20)
Cris Sleightholm
I would support farmers BEFORE I would support golf courses, swimming pools, green yards, green median strips, beautiful flowers and shrubbery around banks, malls, restaurants, and other public areas. All of them can xeriscape.
Farmers can't.
gypsy314 ne
To much Government Democrats are over stepping on this and if they are not careful they all will be seeking new jobs EPA will no longer be and there liberal judge will join the democrats looking for work.
This is stupid with out farmers we starve maybe this is the democrats plan to break us money wise on fuel and starve us by putting farmers out of business.
What else from this fraud of a president and his democrat supporters.
Americans are awake so all Democrat are on notice to start looking for another job and take your liberal judges with you.
Anyone BUT Obama and democrats!
T D
We will all have to conserve more, including farmers. If history is any indication, there will be grumbling up until the moment that the new practices become custom. Then they'll take credit for ushering in the changes.
Randall Ryan
What immediately stands out is the crop: cotton. What in the world is anyone doing grown one of the most water-draining plants in the middle of West Texas?
Yes, quit putting in golf courses (or at least quit watering them: see Australia). But also grow something that makes sense in an arid climate with sparse water sources. This isn't "farmer vs. city" so much as it's people bereft of common sense.
russ huebel
Cotton on the high plains? Lawns on the high plains? Lots of room for thought.
Whacky Waco
Water should be a public commodity. Costs for farming will have to be passed on to the consumer.
Greg Ellis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I hope everyone noted that the lawsuit is being threatened by current farmers who may have to meter their groundwater use and limit how much they withdraw. If even that amount of regulation could result in a compensable taking, then what regulation would be allowed?
Kathi Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
As Ben Franklin said "you don't know the price of water til the well runs dry." Do we REALLY want to wait til that happens?
richard schumacher
Sure, grow all the cotton and fill all the swimming pools you want. Just remember that when the aquifer goes dry all of you, except the wind power technicians, will have to move.
Jim Vance
The extraction of oil, both in well spacing and monthly pumping volume, has been in place and upheld numerous times in Texas law since the 1930's. Oil fields and the Ogallala Acquifer are both ancient geological deposits, though granted that particular water source is not quite as ancient as any oil deposit (tens of thousands of years versus millions of years), yet neither are considered as a renewable resource in terms of the formation of oil or the groundwater recharge rate of the aquifer by competent geologists/hydrologists. So, either the Railroad Commission has been imposing an unconstitutional constraint on the "rule of capture" for oil, or the finding of unconstitutionality for that same rule applied to any groundwater resource is intrinsically and fatally flawed -- depth below surface and purpose or use of the resource being extracted is irrelevant from a legal perspective, or should be to maintain consistency in the basic principle associated with regulatory viability.
Anyone with an ownership interest in some producing oil well who would like to produce at a higher rate could (and perhaps should) challenge the RRC spacing/pumping regulatory framework on the basis of this flawed decision.
Chewing Gum
The Farmer's Voted in the Water District.......Lets Vote them out, no one should tell you what you can do on your own Land..............How about some of the Oil Company's using Fresh Water as make up water when then Inject produced water back in the ground.......Waste of good Water.............yea
Meme Me
The Last place you need to restrict water use is to our Texas farmers and ranchers....It's a need, not a want! I say drain the pools, restrict landscape watering first. I personally don't want to eat food from foreign countries. Leave the farmers alone.
BiffTannen
You can't eat cotton. Or drink it, for that matter. Next up, Mesa Water will drain the aquifer before anybody else can!
Laurence Topliffe
What will these farmers do when they run out of water to pump? Sue themselves?
What will they do when they use up the water that people need to drink to stay alive? It seems to me that if they use up the water people (and cities) need to live (and exist), they have the right to sue those who used up the water.
The idea that the water under someone’s property belongs to the owner is wrong. It’s very different from minerals. Water is needed for life. Using up the water will cause the death of millions of living creatures. Minerals aren't needed for life. Water comes and goes. Minerals are stable.
Those who want to use up the water are selfish and when they use up the water, everything that depends on it will die and the company that used the water will, too. What will the guy who used up the water do? Go somewhere else and do it again? That's just plain thoughtless and stupid and shows no regard for anyone else. There is a video online named Corporate Psychopaths. I suggest everyone watch it.
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Billy Howe via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Every restriction on drilling and produciton will not result in a compensable taking, and you know that Greg. You even stated that in your own water law conference paper on takings. The courts don't award compensation for a regulatory taking unless there is a severe devaluation of the land's value. Or, the landowner made a significant investment with a guarantee from the governmental entity that the regulation would not change. There are few situations in this state that would result in either of those situations.
Billy Howe
With all due respect to Mr. Glennon, yes, Rule of Capture is the underlying basis of the right to groundwater. But, 90% of the production of groundwater in Texas is under regulation by groundwater conservation districts, the EAA, or the subsidence districts. So, we are not so backwards in Texas after all. We have had limits on the Rule of Capture through these governmental entities for over 50 years. Also, many states, including California, consider groundwater to be the private property of the landowner, just like Texas. Other states don't recognize oil and gas as being privately owned. But, we do in Texas, and thank goodness considering the good it has done for our state economy.
Bottomline, is that all private property can be regulated by government. And, that regulation has not clogged our courts. There is absolutely no reason to believe groundwater regulation will be any different. The same claims were made when oil and gas started being regulated 100 years ago. But, it didn't happen. And, the kicker is that under the Water Code, if you sue a groundwater conservation district and lose, you pay their attorney's fees and other costs. Great deal for the landowner, right?
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