U.S. Water News Online
AUSTIN, Texas -- Environmental groups seeking to purchase water rights for conservation purposes should be treated the same as cities and businesses buying water for consumption, a judge in Austin has ruled.
Environmental groups filed suit in 2003 claiming the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had not treated fairly their applications for water rights for environmental purposes.
"This is a major step forward for us," said Dianne Wassenich, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation. "This is the only way that our rivers and bays and estuaries will be there for future generations."
The ruling compels the agency to consider granting water rights that preserve "environmental flows," or water needed by the state's bays, fish and other wildlife. The agency had denied four such applications by environmental groups.
The agency argued that it didn't have authority to issue a water right for preservation purposes as part of a system that was established to distribute publicly owned water for consumption.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wrote to the agency in February 2003 saying that it should delay consideration of permits seeking water for environmental purposes because it was unclear whether the state could do so under the law.
But state District Judge Suzanne Covington said the law was clear.
"My ruling that the commission has jurisdiction includes a finding that Texas law does contemplate appropriation of water rights for instream uses and to protect inflows into bays and estuaries," she wrote in a letter to attorneys on both sides.
The San Marcos River Foundation was the first group to apply for water rights in 2000. Its application, which was rejected in March 2003, would have secured 1.3 million acre-feet of water a year for the Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers.
The other applications, which were filed in 2002, were aimed at conserving water for Galveston Bay, the Trinity, Colorado and Lavaca rivers and Caddo Lake. Together, the proposals sought more than 12 million acre-feet per year.
The state environmental commission said it was considering whether to appeal.
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