The public comment period on proposed groundwater decline targets for a management area spanning North and Central Texas closes Wednesday, ending a three-month window on figures that will govern pumping permits from Tarrant County to the Hill Country.
The targets, called desired future conditions, are among the least visible and most consequential numbers in Texas groundwater law. State rules define them as the quantified condition of an aquifer — water levels, spring flows or volumes — that districts agree to accept at a set future date. The Texas Water Development Board converts each one into a volume of “modeled available groundwater,” and districts must use that volume when they grant or deny a permit.
Representatives of Groundwater Management Area 8 voted on March 31 to propose the 2026 conditions for adoption. That vote opened a 90-day comment period required by Section 36.108 of the Texas Water Code, during which every member district must hold its own public hearing. The Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District in Burnet opened its window April 23 and closes it July 22, and noticed its hearing for June 25.
GMA 8 covers 11 groundwater conservation districts in whole or in part, including Prairielands, Northern Trinity, Upper Trinity, Middle Trinity, North Texas and Red River. The relevant aquifers include the Trinity, Woodbine and Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone).
The districts based the proposal on a rebuilt model. GMA 8 members contracted INTERA Inc. to develop version 3.01 of the northern Trinity and Woodbine groundwater availability model, released in March 2026.
Before voting, districts are required by statute to weigh factors including total estimated recoverable storage, spring flow and other interactions between groundwater and surface water, the state water plan’s supply strategies, the feasibility of achieving the condition, and the property rights of landowners over the aquifer.
The Legislature created groundwater management areas in 2003 and added the joint planning requirement in 2005, obliging districts to revisit the conditions at least once every five years. GMA 8 last adopted conditions in November 2021.
The stakes of those numbers are visible elsewhere in the state. In East Texas, entities tied to Dallas investor Kyle Bass sued the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District this month after it imposed a moratorium on new non-exempt permits while it rewrites its rules. The entities had sought permits for 43 wells drawing on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. Districts elsewhere have argued their authority is too thin for the demand now arriving. As The Texas Dispatch previously reported, the Blanco-Pedernales district asked lawmakers in May for explicit power to deny industrial water permits to data centers.
After the comment period ends, each GMA 8 district compiles a written summary of comments received and any suggested revisions, then submits it to the other districts. Representatives reconvene to consider those reports, adopt final conditions and file an explanatory report with the Texas Water Development Board, which determines whether each condition is achievable and issues the permitting volumes.