GBRA files motion for rehearing of denied permits

With many concerned citizens in attendance at the Gonzales County Courthouse, the GCUWCD held a special board meeting on July 30 and voted to accept and sign the Final Decision document denying Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority’s (GBRA) permit amendment request.

The Final Decision document is the legal explanation with findings of fact and conclusions of law to support the board's vote on June 10, 2025 to deny GBRA's request for an additional 9,000 acre-feet/year of Carrizo groundwater.   

Three of the five board members (Bruce Tieken, Glen Glass, and Mark Ainsworth) voted to approve the Final Decision document. Barry Miller recused himself due to conflict of interest and ex-parte communications, while Mike St. John was absent.

The Final Decision is a revised version of the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) administrative law judge’s Proposal for Decision. GCUWCD’s attorney Greg Ellis made revisions needed to align with the board’s vote. This document is critical for defending the denial if GBRA appeals in court. According to Ellis, GBRA appears likely to challenge the decision.

GBRA already holds permits to produce and export 15,000 AFY of Carrizo groundwater, originally granted in 2013 to Texas Water Alliance Ltd. (a subsidiary of San Jose–based SJW Corp.). Without building the project, SJW later sold these permits to GBRA in 2017 for $31 million, making a $12.5 million pre-tax gain.

On June 27, attorneys for GBRA, Emily Rogers and Stefanie Albright of law firm Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP filed a motion to the GCUWCD, requesting a rehearing of the June 10 denial of GBRA’s requested amendments to its Operating Permit No. 11-16-17 and Export Permit No. 01-13-01. On Monday, Aug. 4, GBRA filed a supplement to that motion.

GBRA argues it complied with the Texas Water Code and the GCUWCD rules in seeking amendments, and that denial is erroneous and contrary to law. Further, GBRA argues that denial of the operating permit based on DFC (Desired Future Condition) achievement and MAG (Modeled Available Groundwater) exceedances is erroneous and violates state and federal law. GBRA asks the board to reverse the board’s June 10, 2025 decision to deny, revise the findings of fact and conclusions, and grant the amendments to its permits.

GBRA knows that GCWUCD has already permitted over 92,000 AFY of Carrizo groundwater with the vast majority (77%) being granted to exporters, leaving Gonzales County residents only a minor portion. GBRA has the GCUWCD January 2025 groundwater study by DBS&A that shows already-permitted volumes far exceed the Modeled Available Groundwater volumes established by the Texas Water Development Board, taking water levels below Desired Future Conditions for the Carrizo aquifer at five of the 10 monitoring wells by 2030, and at seven of the 10 monitoring wells by 2040. This doesn't include the additional 9,000 acre-ft/yr of pumping desired by GBRA. 

Many landowners not leased would experience drawdowns on their land deeper than GBRA's leased properties.  GBRA's insistence on having local residents pay hefty costs resulting from its application, while ignoring a GCUWCD groundwater study that shows its pumping would cause excessive drawdowns on unleased properties is in my opinion, malicious.

With the Final Decision now adopted, the board’s decision to deny GBRA should be strongly upheld. As I mentioned in my prior article, although the Final Decision does deny both the production and export permit requests, it had some revisions and errors which favored GBRA; correcting them would have strengthened the board’s case and enforced cost recovery from GBRA.

GBRA needs to stop the legal attack, respect the board's decision, pay its bills, and withdraw its motion for rehearing. GBRA can redirect its hefty legal budget from taking groundwater from family farms and ranches to instead restoring Lake Wood and Lake Gonzales.

GCUWCD leadership still needs to explain why GBRA's applications advanced into a costly multi-year contested case hearing despite clear deficiencies, without recovery of costs required by the rules, and with expenditures being made without public notice or board votes.

The district board will meet again at the Courthouse at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12, to hold a public hearing for comment on draft new rules that will be considered for adoption. The newest redline draft version of these rules can be seen on the district’s website at https://gcuwcd.org/gcuwcd-board-agendas-and-minutes (go to August 12, 2025 Public Hearing Packet & Participation Form).

The public is encouraged to attend and ask for rules changes to protect local stakeholders, for example well spacing to protect unleased properties from large exporter wells, limits on export, and mitigation for local public supply wells.

Ted Boriack is a member of the Water Protection Association and a Gonzales County landowner dedicated to preserving local water resources.