Conroe Industrial Development Corp. (CIDC) sold 54 acres in the Conroe Park North Industrial Park to what we believe is Niagara bottling company. CIDC approved the agreement for the sale of the land in a 4-2 vote on April 15. CIDC board members Keaton Hineman and Duke Coons (who is also a member of the Conroe City Council), were the nay votes. (Duke Coons is a CIDC board member and actually voted NOT to sell the 54 acres to Niagara bottling company.)
According to the Texas Water Code, a water right is a property interest and may be conveyed, transferred, or reserved. A landowner can sell or reserve his groundwater rights separately from the rest of the property. This type of conveyance is referred to as a “severance”.
The plan is for CIDC to convey the groundwater rights associated with the tract of land to the City of Conroe, which will then lease those rights to the bottling company. The terms of the agreement would not expire until Dec. 31, 2061 (40 years of pumping water from the aquifer(s) under Montgomery County.)
Dubbed Project Hydrate, the proposal involves the construction of two privately owned water wells and a ramp up of groundwater production over time, beginning with 350,000 gallons a day then increasing to 650,000 gallons a day, with the possibility of eventually reaching 1.95 million gallons of groundwater a day from an aquifer to be bottled and sold. (I believe it will be pumped from the Jasper aquifer.)
If the lease of the water rights to the bottling company is approved by the Conroe City Council board, the bottling company would pay Conroe for the water under the city’s existing water rate. A provision of the lease agreement also states the company can directly hook up to the city’s water supply if needed—and pay the regular rates—until it transitions entirely to groundwater.
(My take on this situation: Conroe would be “selling” the water pumped by Niagara bottling company at their existing water rates – their profits gained by the additional volume of water being pumped over a 40 year period. This begs the question – with large increases in population predicted for Montgomery County which in turn will greatly increase water demand – why not just profit from this future demand for water rather than allowing a bottled water company to deplete the aquifers and sell it outside the county at a huge profit? There is already concern that there won’t be enough groundwater for future generations, which is why the Texas Water Code has set out rules for managing and conserving groundwater through Groundwater Conservation Districts and moving to more surface water use. In a word: Greed.)
Conroe City Council board members deferred making a decision on the project at the April 22 meeting and will revisit at the next council meeting after they've done more research.
Resources:
https://www.land.com/owning/water/texas-water-rights-ownership/
Copyright © 2024 Stop Our Sinking - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy