MILAM COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — The Sandow Lakes Ranch developers are taking the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District to court over new rules adopted in October, claiming it "targets" their development project.
- The Sandow Lakes Ranch developer applied for a permit to drill a new well that would pump about 9,000 acre-feet of water per year and continue using an existing well that pumps 15,000 per year in 2022.
- The Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District adopted new rules in Oct. 2024, including additional approval processes for drilling new wells and maintaining historical use permits, which SLR argues will harm their business and delay their plans.
- The conservation district has responded, stating that the lawsuit should be dismissed, arguing that SLR misunderstands the regulations and that the lawsuit is premature.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The Sandow Lakes Ranch development is trying to develop on the old Alcoa site.
To do that, they applied in 2022 to drill a new well that will pump about 9,000 acre-feet of water per year and use its existing wells to pump 15,000 acre-feet of water.
But they’re upset about new rules adopted last year by the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District.
So, they’re planning to take them to court.
In the lawsuit filed in November, SLR writes that the new rules "uniquely target" them.
Those rules include changes about (1) application approval, like deciding whether to approve new wells based on factors like how it impacts neighbors and will require additional reviews from the district before a final decision is made, (2) historical-use permits, which require existing wells to be used in the same way, same place and use the same amount of water, (3) and the information needed for both, which requires SLR to submit additional information about the location, purpose and amount of water that will be used.
They say these new rules shouldn’t apply to their applications and that it will harm their business.
They want to stop enforcing the rules, prevent them from being applied to their applications, and enjoy their court and attorney fees paid.
But in a separate response, the conservation district says the lawsuit should be dismissed.
They say SLR is "misunderstanding" the rules, and it’s too soon to file a lawsuit since they haven’t taken action on the applications.
They also said that the lawsuit can’t name individual board members.
If dismissed, the Board wants SLR to pay attorney fees and other costs related to the lawsuit.
15ABC reached out to both SLR and the district, but they say they won’t comment since the case is still ongoing.
