By Glenn Smith Jr. | Published Sunday, September 7, 2008
Bill Mayes wrote a very well thought-out letter to the editor last week concerning the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. He points out that, while he is not against the regulation of our aquifers, he is very much against bureaucracies. I cannot agree more, and I am on the board of directors for the UTGCD.
No one should find pleasure in regulating something or somebody. It is a necessary evil of government. It starts with local ordinances, followed by state laws and, if that is not enough, we have federal laws.
The good thing about the UTGCD is that it is local. It covers four counties and each county has two members on the board of directors. Mr. Mayes asked several questions in his letter and I would like to help answer those questions.
The legislation creating the district limited the ability of the district to charge production fees to domestic and agricultural wells. It would take a legislative amendment to change that.
While I have never heard any board member indicate any desire to assess a fee on domestic or agricultural wells, the founding legislation is the real protection from such action. Additionally, the fee in most cases would be too small to justify metering and billing. Regarding how the board of directors came to be, each county commissioner's court appointed two board members.
They serve four year terms but in order to stagger the terms, one member from each county is only serving a two year term at the present time. Again, the legislation created this method of appointing board members.
Regarding how this appointment process took place, several months ago the Wise County Messenger Update invited anyone interested in serving on the board to turn in an application/resume to the county judge's office. I also believe it was mentioned in an article in the Messenger back at that time.
This is how I found out about it. I tendered an application/resume stating my interest in serving on the board. They interviewed the eight-to-10 people who turned in applications. My interview lasted over 30 minutes. For additional information on the current board members, I would refer everyone to the newly created Web site for the UTGCD. Please go to www.uppertrinitygcd.com.
The Temporary Rules and Bylaws are published on the Web site and they were adopted after numerous public meetings and after a five-hour public hearing.
The board has been very careful in following the laws for public entities. The district's attorney attends almost all the meetings. The budget for 2009 is available from the district by making a request to the district office. This budget was very difficult to design this year because the district has never operated before.
It is further complicated by the size (four counties) and the number of existing water wells that may want to register with the district and the number of water wells drilled each year in the district. Additionally, there are certain start-up costs the first year, for example, specialized software that can map and track the location of water wells, vehicles, computers, equipment, etc.
Mr. Mayes you asked very appropriate questions for this district and for any newly formed governmental entity. We all must remember that the alternative to forming the Upper Trinity Groundwater District was to wait around and be placed in a mega-district with six-plus counties including possibly Denton, Collin and Dallas County.
The citizens of Wise County would have very little influence over the rules and regulations in such a mega-district.
I hate regulations, too, but I would rather have local control than to have Dallas and Collin Counties telling us what we can and cannot do with our groundwater.
