PRESIDIO — On Sunday, Presidians gathered at the PAC for a film screening hosted by the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD). The organization’s future hangs in the balance this May as voters decide whether to approve Proposition 1, which would make the PCUWCD a taxing entity — in line with other water conservation districts across the state.
PCUWCD General Manager Trey Gerfers stressed that the election would not raise taxes. Instead, Presidio County residents will vote to clarify an issue left unaddressed from the 1999 ballot initiative that created the organization and designated how the organization can fund itself. Presidio County currently apportions funding for the district.
During the county’s budget workshop season over the summer of 2021, County Attorney Rod Ponton called the water district’s funding structure into question, claiming that it was illegal for the county to fund the district’s operations because the PCUWCD is a separate, self-governing entity. “A county can [only] do that if it is solely for the purpose of getting the district to organize and start it,” he explained at a commissioners court meeting in August 2021.
This year’s election season, the PCUWCD is hoping to wrap up unfinished business — but the stakes are high for the only item on the county’s ballot. If the PCUWCD can’t solidify a legal funding stream, there won’t be any funding for its operations. “We’ll cease to exist,” Gerfers said.
At Sunday’s presentation, Gerfers showed a short film explaining the PCUWCD’s mission and how it impacts the lives of everyday Presidio County residents. In a country increasingly besieged by “water wars” — recent headlines have highlighted the fight between multiple states and agricultural entities over how to apportion water from the Colorado River, which 40 million people depend on for their drinking water — he felt that his organization will help protect county residents’ water for years to come.
The PCUWCD was born in the aftermath of a struggle between the city of El Paso and rural Far West Texans. In the early ‘90s, the city’s water utility bought huge swaths of ranch land near the Davis Mountains to begin “water ranching” — in other words, acquiring property that taps into groundwater that could replenish the city’s water supply in the event that it runs dry. (The city does not currently import any water from its land in the Trans-Pecos, but expects that it may need to by the year 2050.)
Gerfers explained that water conservation districts across Texas are “an effective way to protect landowners, often created by landowners.” The districts fill a void created by a lack of regulation and legal precedent governing groundwater use.
The PCUWCD’s educational film explains that state groundwater law has its roots in a 1904 Texas Supreme Court decision — Houston and Texas Central Railway v. East. The case concerned a rail company who pumped 25,000 gallons of water per day from their property, causing the well on a neighboring property to go dry.
The state ruled in favor of the rail company, citing a concept in English common law called the right of capture. According to the right of capture, landowners have total control over everything on their property from “the heavens” above the property down to the center of the earth. The rail company, therefore, was not responsible for its detrimental impact to the water supply of a neighboring landowner.
In simple terms, the district describes the impact of unchecked drilling and water use as “too many straws in too small of a cup.” Groundwater conservation districts designate local control over local water supplies with those most affected by regulations — and those who are most knowledgeable about local groundwater.
Currently, the only true regulation the PCUWCD requires from landowners is to keep a drilling log that tracks the number of wells drilled on a property and the amount of water pumped. Beyond that, the district is mostly concerned with protecting the groundwater supply so that the county’s cities have adequate drinking water and the county’s agricultural users have access to the water they need.
The ballot initiative’s “unfinished business” would dictate how the district’s budget is apportioned. Currently, it gets a cut of the county budget, but the proposition would instead skim off the county’s annual property tax pool — but won’t change the amount that the county’s property owners pay in taxes.
Gerfers explained that the PCUWCD budget generates much more value than its relatively small budget, which usually rings up to between $50-55,000 annually. “We have a tiny budget,” he said. “And dollar for dollar, we generate way more value than any other taxing entity.”
Presidians who missed Sunday’s presentation can view the short film online on pcuwcd.org or by directly visiting its Youtube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4mjtFS8IW0&list=PLr4dqe8CoxFmpe_rDHsfRwLq7x_TeQoPZ&index=2 .
Early voting runs through May 2 and the General Election will be held on May 6. Presidio’s polling place is the PAC center, where county voters can also vote in the city and PISD elections concurrently.