Launch Coming Fall 2025
Falling for over a decade
Aquifers Have
been Declining
Groundwater levels in Hays County have been falling for over a decade-even a rain like the 2015 floods won't stop the decline.
When it rains, creeks and rivers fill, but it doesn't mean the Trinity Aquifer will recover to normal. In fact, it cannot.
The Law
Since 1904, Texas has followed the Rule of Capture-a law most people barely understand. But it's the main reason commercial pumpers and others can legally keep pumping the Trinity as wells and springs go dry. To help fix this, the state created Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs) under Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code, with the goal of protecting landowners' rights and managing groundwater fairly. But as Dr. Robert Mace often says: "GCDs can't stop the Rule of Capture. They can only manage around it." These local districts often lack the legal authority-and the data-to fully protect rural wells from large-scale pumping.
Our Main Hays County's Groundwater Conservation Districts (GCDs):
Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (HTGCD)
Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD)
Our GCDs want to protect our water, but part of the problem lies in outdated laws and legal threats
from small and big pumpers that limit GCDs' ability to say NO.
GCD'S Can't Say No
Besides the laws and legal intimidation of the GCDs, it's their math. GCDs use a complex array of calculations, measuring and validation from many sources, including State information that is slow to arrive. One significant calculation is called MAG (Modeled Available Groundwater). This math is how the GCDs calculate water availability. The current MAG for calculating landowners is the estimated water use from landowners' wells called private exempt wells.
So What's the Problem?
It's the Math.
As it stands, our Hays County GCDs do not give landowners any credit for how much water their
land returns to the aquifer. Only their private exempt wells are in the calculation for 200 to 500 gallons a day-and their agricultural wells. The vast majority of wells out there are private exempt wells. Landowners cover over 90% of Hays County and help recharge the Trinity, capturing rainwater, slowing and spreading runoff, and filtering water into the ground. The district needs to start calculating landowners for their contributions-not just their withdrawals. Someone on a small lot is not contributing the same as someone on acreage.
Use our Trinity recharge calculator below to figure out what your land contributes to our groundwater in Hays County.
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Join Us
We Must Act Now
GCDs need landowners to understand the problem, and landowners need the GCDs to modernize and adapt to Hays County water challenges. As landowners, we have the legal and moral right and responsibility to push for fairer, more accurate groundwater accounting-before recovery becomes impossible.
The Solution
Give landowners credit for the water they recharge. Also known as correlative rights or correlative allocation. Experts like Dr. Robert Mace, Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, support correlative rights—a system granting water rights based on land area or recharge. It’s working in other parts of Texas. It can work here, too.
That’s why MyTexasWell.com invites GCDs to align with landowners, not oppose them. By adopting more accurate recharge-based allocations and honoring landowner contributions, GCDs can:
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Reduce legal risk from future takings claims
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Build political support from the Hays communities.
Landowners are requesting that the GCD's:
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Measure and acknowledge recharge from private landowners
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Provide landowners correlative rights or allocation
Our Mission
We are landowners that want a more transparent water accounting system that recognizes landowners for their contributions to groundwater. By acknowledging our rain deposits, we can protect our wells, our groundwater, and our community. Our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren deserve a future with flowing springs. We are nonpartisan, not an environmental or government group. We are landowners. We are unpaid landowners-everyday people with families and jobs who refuse to live in fear of losing our groundwater and way of life. We have been silent for too long. It's time to change that.
Join us —without obligation, without compromising privacy—as we ask hard questions and push for real-world solutions before it’s too late.
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Common Questions
Got questions about your well, water rights, or what’s happening in your area?
You’re not alone—and that’s why we’re here.
Legal
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Dicta and GCD Accountability in Texas Groundwater Law Foundational Case Law & Dicta - Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day & McDaniel (2012) Texas Supreme Court held that landowners have an ownership interest in groundwater in place. Regulatory limitations may trigger compensable takings. - Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Bragg (2013) Following Day, court ruled that restricting groundwater permits can constitute a regulatory taking and awarded compensation. Rule-of-Capture Exception & Dicta - Sipriano v. Great Spring Waters (1999) Reaffirmed rule of capture, but noted exceptions like negligence and hinted future shifts. - Barshop v. Medina County UWCD (1996) Dicta encouraged legislative modernization of groundwater regulation beyond rule of capture. GCD Accountability & Emerging Takings Claims - Strata/Fazzino v. BVGCD (5th Cir.) Allowed takings claims against GCDs to proceed; recognized lack of sovereign immunity. - Vanderpool v. GCD (2023) Upheld due-process and takings claim viability in light of GCD-imposed permit reductions. Legal Trends Summary - Day & McDaniel: Vested rights in groundwater recognized. - Bragg: GCD permit limits ruled as takings. - Sipriano & Barshop: Dicta challenge rule of capture's dominance. - Fazzino & Vanderpool: GCDs face real liability under modern interpretations. MyTexasWell Advocacy Commentary Both Day and Bragg affirm that landowners have constitutionally protected groundwater interests - and GCD decisions limiting those interests may be compensable takings. Coupled with dicta in Sipriano and Barshop, a clear legal signal is forming: GCDs that approve high-volume commercial pumping - even during drought or under ambiguous statutes - risk lawsuits, rule challenges, and liability for harming private wells.
We are nonpartisan—not an environmental or government group, but landowners who understand that the system meant to protect us must change.
Email: Us@mytexaswell.com