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July 14, 2026
NEW BOSTON, Texas — Bowie County Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved a resolution supporting the formation of a multi-county regional organization with the power to protect groundwater accessed by wells.
The vote puts Bowie County alongside a growing list of Northeast Texas counties backing a proposed 16-county regional groundwater conservation district — an effort leaders hope the Texas Legislature will approve in its 2027 session. Smith and Harrison counties voted to join earlier this year, and Camp, Cass, Upshur and Wood counties signed on at the end of June.
The urgency comes from what's underneath: the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which supplies wells across upper Northeast Texas. Under current Texas law, counties have essentially no authority to stop or limit groundwater pumping — state law treats groundwater as a private property right, and without a conservation district there are no pumping regulations at all.
That gap hasn't gone unnoticed. Dallas-area water planners' long-range supply plan filed with the state notes that a 90-well project in Wood, Smith and Upshur counties could be fully implemented precisely because the region has no groundwater district and no pumping limitations. In Anderson County, a plan by billionaire investor Kyle Bass to pump billions of gallons annually from the Carrizo-Wilcox has been tied up in legal battles — a scenario Northeast Texas leaders say they want stronger tools to prevent.
A conservation district cannot ban wells outright — state law doesn't allow it — but it can reasonably regulate production, monitor aquifer levels with hydrologists and engineers, and set local rules on commercial pumping. Under the current plan, the district would govern commercial water wells only; agricultural and private wells would not be regulated.
The Sledge Law Group is drafting the legislation counties hope lawmakers will take up next year. With Bowie County's vote, the regional coalition continues to grow toward the participation thresholds some counties have attached to their own commitments.