Aqua Texas Files Federal Lawsuit Against Hays County Groundwater Conservation District for Assessment of an Illegal Penalty and to Protect Access to Water for Thousands of Customers

AUSTIN, Texas , Jan. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, December 29, 2023, Aqua Texas filed a federal civil complaint against the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District and its Board of Directors for unlawful and unequal treatment of the utility in complete disregard for Aqua Texas's legal obligation to provide "continuous and adequate" water service to more than 3,000 customers in Hays County. The complaint requests an immediate injunction to prevent the Defendant District from restricting Aqua's continued use of its groundwater wells to serve its customers.

A devastating drought in 2022 caused numerous District permit holders to produce more than their annual permitted amount to supply their businesses and customers. In the spring of 2023, the District sent fine notices to numerous Hays County utilities and well operators for exceeding their annual permitted amounts. The penalty was assessed at a rate of $5.00 per thousand gallons produced above the annual permitted amount. That rate is unlawful because Texas state law caps such production fees at three cents per thousand gallons.

Using this unlawful rate, the District assessed an unlawful fine of nearly $500,000 against Aqua Texas and has since made numerous public threats to revoke Aqua's permits if Aqua did not pay the illegal fine. The District is threatening to do this despite the obvious hardship that ceasing production at these wells would create for Aqua's customers.

After sending out fine notices using the illegal rate, the District then applied an unlawful double standard to those fine recipients. The District completely forgave the fine assessed against other utilities, but insisted that Aqua Texas pay the almost half-million dollar fine in full. This despite Aqua's documented expenditure of millions of dollars to find leaks, replace old lines, purchase property outside of the Jacob's Well area to protect the springs and numerous other measures to promote conservation.

While other Hays County utilities and well operators were allowed to apply their own conservation and infrastructure investments for penalty forgiveness, the District refused to extend the same treatment to Aqua, opting instead to use the contested fine as justification for further illegal hardships. In addition to threatening non-renewal of permits for existing groundwater wells, the District enacted an unlawful moratorium on new wells that prevented Aqua from using two new wells that were drilled before the moratorium was enacted.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Western Texas requests immediate Federal intervention to prevent the District from disrupting Aqua's ability to provide its customers with safe, clean water from Aqua's wells, which are its only source of supply. As of Jan. 2, 2024, groundwater well production is on-going.

"Federal and State law prevents a regulatory agency from applying double standards and changing the rules mid-stream," said Paul Terrill of Terrill & Waldrop. "The District has plainly singled out Aqua Texas for unfair and unequal treatment—and the District does not seem to care that it is Aqua's customers and Jacob's Well that are hurt by the District's double standards."

"Our number one priority in the Wimberley Valley is, and has been, to reduce reliance on water used within the Jacob's Well Groundwater Management Zone, while maintaining our obligation to our customers to provide them with a clean, safe and reliable supply of water" said Craig Blanchette, president of Aqua Texas. "Our investments in the community, and our pursuit of fair treatment by the District so that we may implement our planned mitigation strategy, demonstrate our commitment to the region and our shared goal of protecting natural resources."

Aqua Texas is represented in these legal proceedings by Terrill and Waldrop, PLLC of Austin, Texas. The complaint number is 1:23-cv-01576.

About Aqua Texas
Aqua Texas is a subsidiary of Essential Utilities, Inc. It currently provides about 285,000 people in 53 counties across the Lone Star State with water and wastewater services. To learn more, please visit www.aquawater.com/about/states-we-serve/texas.php.

SOURCE Aqua