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Dear Water Rights Group,
Yes, SB 1374, the combined "study bill" and "kill-SMRF type permits bill" is scheduled for Wednesday morning, 8 a.m., May 14. But unfortunately it may not be as simple as that. If it is not the first item heard in that meeting, it could be put off until after the House session that starts at 10 a.m. and goes on until sometime into the night. And if that runs too late, SB 1374 could be put off until Thursday morning. We have to be prepared for lots of delays, but while we are at the Capitol, we can all visit with the staff of the House Representatives, at their Capitol offices. We are hoping that we can get some info Monday on whether the bill will be one of the first heard or not, which could help us plan our week.
SB 1374 is also known as the "let water rights for consumptive purposes be issued while we study how to protect the environment" bill by some of us. This is the last chance for the public to speak on this harmful bill, so please make every effort to find one person or more within your organization who is retired, or free for those two days, to come to Austin. We can find a guest room for them in the homes of our members in San Marcos, and they can ride with us or follow us to Austin and back, if they are not familiar with the city. The traffic is awful getting to Austin during rush hour, so it might be good to come the night before, Tuesday night, and spend the night. We really need for each supporting group to be represented, and speak if possible on their own opinions on the bill.
Those groups, like the shrimpers that have to work since the season just opened, who just cannot be with us will be faxing us a letter for us to introduce when we speak to the committee. If they can find any representative to be there for them, they will do so. Please find someone among your members to who can do this hearing, and we'll help however we can. There is a cafeteria in the Capitol where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner. Contact us for directions to the parking garage, etc.
Below are the problems with the bill that we'll explain at the hearing, let us know if you have suggestions or questions:
Texas rivers and bays are not being protected by TCEQ in its water right granting---the SMRF permit analysis by TCEQ shows that there is already not sufficient water left in the Guadalupe to keep SA Bay healthy, since so many consumptive rights have been granted. Many Texas rivers are over-appropriated already, and only have water in them because the rights are not yet fully used in the wet years past, but that is changing rapidly as more cities buy up long-unused agricultural rights. The House needs to pass strong instructions to TCEQ to protect rivers and bays while evaluating water right applications. That should be done in this bill.
There are internationally reknowned studies of estuary needs for each bay in Texas completed now with millions of dollars of Texas Legislative appropriations for that purpose, but they are not being used by TCEQ to set the amounts of water reserved in rivers to keep the bays healthy and productive. There are also now-complete Water Availability Models for each river basin, so there is no excuse to ignore these, after the Legislature has spent so much over so many years on them. But TCEQ is waiting to hear from the Legislature whether they should be doing this or not, and meanwhile more water rights are being granted, making the problem worse every year.
While the study is going on that SB 1374 proposes, it allows more consumptive water rights to be granted, which will cause a "gold rush" on water that will harm Texas bays even further, and could cause SA Bay to be lost. According to TCEQ's recent analysis of the SMRF permit, the amount of fresh water that SA needs is seldom available. Unfairly, conservation water rights like SMRF's are not allowed to be granted in this bill, removing one of the best ways available to protect bays that SHOULD be studied if the study is actually going to be done with protection in mind.
The study can be done without passing this bill, since the Lt. Gov. or Governor can order such a study to be done if that is what they want. The purpose of this bill is obviously to stop conservation water rights. Meanwhile, many such instream water rights have been granted in the past, and it is clearly legal to grant them. This effort to make it illegal is only pointing out that the conservation permits applied for like SMRF's were done according to the current law. SMRF made it clear that they would not own or manage the right, it would belong to the state and be placed in the Water Trust. And such conservation permits like SMRF's do not interfere in any way with currently held water rights, we need to remind you. These applications like SMRF's do NOT tie up all the water in the rivers as the water hustlers like to say, they just set a minimum adequate flow level that is needed for the health of the rivers, water quality, and the livelihoods of Texans based upon those rivers and bays.
These legislators surely would not want their name to forever be on a bill that would harm rural and coastal Texas, and the Texas economy that depends on healthy adequate flows. That is what this bill will do unless it is changed. So we oppose this bill as it stands, because it is very harmful as the Senate passed it, with a one-sided moratorium on water right granting, only for conservation permits.
It will be costly to try to correct the damage that the "gold rush" of over-appropriation of water rights will do, and it will be devastating to the coastal economy based on fishing, seafood harvesting, and tourism. It will also be harmful to farmers and ranchers who depend on clean water in rivers, and to cities and industries that will no longer have adequate water in rivers to dilute their waste discharges. That will mean that they have to treat their waste with ever more expensive processes and equipment.
The coalition that is working together on this issue includes saltwater and freshwater fishermen, shrimpers, seafood harvesters, motel and restaurant owners at the coast, small businesses, riverside landowners, farmers, ranchers, birdwatchers, boaters, scientists, and conservation groups. They have diverse interests but they all know that protecting minimum adequate flows is the right thing to do, and it is urgent that it happen quickly, since it is too late already for some Texas rivers.
We will introduce any letters from groups that cannot be there at this point, and explain specifically why they could not attend, and give copies of each letter to each representative.
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