East Texans condemn Dallas millionaire’s plan to pump 16 billion gallons of their groundwater to other parts of the state — every year

Subscribe to The Y’all — a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.

---

A Dallas millionaire is seeking permission to drill into the massive Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to explore how much water is available. His enterprise, if fully realized, could drain 15.9 billion gallons of water from the massive body each year — more than triple the amount the city of Longview uses in a year.

Kyle Bass, through his company Conservation Equity Management, sees opportunity in the expanse of the aquifer, which has gone largely unstudied, to quench the thirst of the growing state. He purchased more than 11,000 acres in East Texas and plans to install more than 40 high-capacity water wells in Anderson, Houston and Henderson counties.

His neighbors have rung the alarm bells. Residents who rely on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer — which extends millions of acres from western Louisiana through East Texas to the Mexico border — have had to dig deeper to access its groundwater. Locals worry this operation would dry out their personal wells, wells used for business purposes and the small springs that wildlife and ranches in the region rely upon. Experts, local leaders, and residents told lawmakers in an 11-hour hearing this month that the negative impacts could be innumerable.

“It’s dropping,” business owner Mark Calicutt told The Texas Tribune of the aquifer. “It’s dropping faster and faster each year. And if he does what he says he’s going to do, it will deplete the aquifer.”

Some experts say the water available in Texas’ aquifers is expected to decline over the next few decades. Many believe it has already declined significantly, largely to meet the demands of massive population growth in pockets of the state, but also because state regulations protect the interests of the most effective drillers.

Groundwater in Texas, like oil, is the property of whoever owns the land above it. The rule of capture says groundwater goes to whoever can pump the most water, the fastest. The Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District are tasked with protecting their portions of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in Anderson, Cherokee and Henderson counties. However, their options are limited to fight against those who take advantage of the rule of capture.

The proposal

Right now, Bass says he is only seeking permission to study the aquifer. He aims to verify findings of three hydrogeologic engineering firms that have modeled the subsurface aquifers on the property.

Bass purchased 7,200 acres in Anderson and Houston counties and 4,100 in Henderson County through Conservation Equity Management, his Texas-based private equity firm. Redtown Ranch in Anderson and Houston counties and Pine Bliss in Henderson County are a part of more than 40,000 acres across multiple states the firm is using for ecological restoration, timber management and more, according to a fact sheet from the company.

In May 2024, his firm applied for permission to drill exploratory wells. Bass said he wants to understand what the aquifer truly has to offer before he ever makes a large extraction.

While many see aquifers as a flowing underground river, the space is actually filled with sand, gravel, silt, clay and lignite — a type of brown coal — that is saturated with water.

“It is confined, like a river, but it's more like an underground sponge,” said Kelley Holcomb, the Angelina & Neches River Authority general manager. “If you put water in there, it will eventually meander however it meanders. But it's not a free flowing river.”

Holcomb is against Bass’s proposal and has told lawmakers as much.

Extracting groundwater is an efficient way to provide clean water to residents that many cities, like the city of Lufkin, have used for decades. They can pull the water from the well, treat it locally and send it down local lines to their residential and commercial customers.

And across East Texas, the aquifer is well used, with thousands of wells drilled at varying depths, Texas Water Development Board data shows. Some sit at 50 feet, while others are as deep as 1,000 or 2,000 feet deep.

Nobody really knows how much water the aquifer holds at any given time, Holcomb said. The Texas Water Development Board has some estimates but that information is based on what data they can get from groundwater conservation districts, which don’t exist in every Texas county.

“Should the data we gather from the exploratory test wells indicate less water is available than our hydrogeological and engineering studies project, we will re-evaluate our plans and modify or terminate the project accordingly,” Bass told The Texas Tribune in an email. “Any future permit applications will be based upon the real-world data and science generated by the exploratory test wells.”

Calicutt, who owns Calicutt Drilling Inc. — a third generation water well drilling company in East Texas — does not trust Bass will adjust his plans if the tests prove there is less water than the models indicate. He also doesn’t trust the models Bass’ team has created.

“I can make a computer model say whatever you want a computer model to say,” Calicutt said. “But the real world data I see every day — that Mr. Bass and his hydrogeologists do not see every day because they do not work on these water wells every day, is completely different.”

When probed for more information, Bass’s company said that if the tests support their models, the wells would ideally pump out an estimated 48,972 acre-feet per year, which translates to about 15.9 billion gallons.

His company has not sought permission to extract this amount of water, or to export it. But residents fear that will be the natural consequence of even allowing this current proposal to move forward.

Hundreds of East Texans, including landowners, business owners, community leaders and state officials have attended town hall meetings and listening sessions to oppose the plan.

“Our county depends heavily on groundwater for economic growth, for the health and safety and well being of our citizens,” Anderson County Judge Carey McKinney told lawmakers on July 15.

While East Texas doesn’t compete with the rest of the state for agriculture, it is still a vital part of the region, said Anderson County Commissioner Greg Chapin, especially the pine industry. A pine tree could pull 100 to 150 gallons of water per day from the top of the groundwater reservoirs, he said.

“We can just take a simple three to four week drought and start suffering on production in our tree industry, our cattle industry, our crop industry — the whole bit,” Chapin said. “It's not going to take much pull on this aquifer to stop that pressure from giving us that local groundwater that we live on.”

There isn’t a whole lot known about what pulling massive amounts of water from the aquifer will do, Holcomb said. He is also worried about potential subsidence — the sinking of the ground that can happen as a result of groundwater extraction — that has happened in other regions where water was drained from the aquifer before it could recharge. This could make the area more flood prone on top of reducing the available groundwater.

This project isn't meant to benefit East Texans, state Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, said during the state hearing this month.

“It's not for our cities, it's not for our schools, our industries or our land owners,” Ashby said. “Let me be clear, this project sets a dangerous precedent.”

Bass’s plans are vague, missing technical analysis and don’t rely upon credible modeling, Ashby said.

“Additionally, the groundwater supply in Houston County, which I represent, is in danger,” Ashby said. “Redtown Ranch has made their plans to install 15 high capacity wells in Houston County. Since no groundwater Conservation District exists in Houston County, Redtown Ranch can begin to capture egregious amounts of groundwater in the not too distant future without any regulation.”

The rule of capture

Bass’s proposal was submitted to the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District in 2024. He has requested the matter be taken to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for review.

The decision handed down by the judge who presides over the hearing does not have to be followed by the district, but they have to have a very good reason not to, said John Stover, the attorney for the district.

Bass has made it clear he intends to invoke the century-old rule of capture, calling it the “bedrock principle of Texas property law.”

“The rule of capture provides that, absent malice or willful waste, landowners have the right to take all the water they can capture under their land and do with it as they please, and they will not be held liable by their neighbors,” Shauna Sledge, a Texas-based water attorney, told lawmakers.

Groundwater conservation districts in Texas use what data they have to establish guidelines for groundwater production and try to establish fairness in the rule of capture.

A 2012 Texas Supreme Court decision increased the power behind the rule of capture by allowing landowners to bring a regulatory takings claim, which is a constitutional requirement that government compensate landowners for property taken, against the conservation district should the district prevent the landowner from accessing groundwater.

Many groundwater conservation districts, like in East Texas, don’t have the capacity to fight a major takings claim, Sledge said.

And in the counties Bass has applied to, the groundwater conservation district doesn’t have production limits, McKinney said.

Holcomb, who supports the rule of capture as far as it protects personal property rights, said lawmakers can use this case to create balance between private property rights and water conservation.

“We're going to have to make some modifications to balance the original intent of the right of capture,” Holcomb said. “When the rule of capture was developed you didn't have the populations that we have today.”

Texas is running out of water. And part of the problem is massive growth in areas that has resulted in overdrawing aquifers below their feet.

Texans have looked below the surface for water for generations. The portion of the Carrizo-Wilcox in East Texas has gone primarily to East Texans and businesses in East Texas until now. Experts worry what the implications of withdrawing large quantities of water from it will be. It could recharge quickly, and it could not.

In the Texas Panhandle, residents are feeling the long-term implications of the rule of capture in full swing.

Unregulated and uncontrolled groundwater extraction in the Greater Houston region led to experiencing subsidence. It forced regional leaders to create a subsidence management district that has strictly controlled groundwater extraction and slowed the spread of subsidence.

There is no way to be sure what the impact in East Texas will be without much more study, Holcomb said.

Bass’s proposal isn’t even the only one on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer concerning residents who rely upon it. In Central Texas, Georgetown signed a contract to eventually pump 89 million gallons per day from the aquifer.

“Nobody knows how much water is down there,” Holcomb said. “That's why I keep going back to this. We won’t know until they do it, and once they do it, it's too freaking late.”

---

The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.