AUSTIN, Texas (KLTV) - A bill to require a study on pumping of aquifers in the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District has been passed in the Texas Senate.

Rep. Cody Harris’s (R-Palestine) HB 27 requires a study from the Texas Water Development Board that would assess certain hydrological effects of groundwater pumping in the aquifers underlying the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District in Anderson, Cherokee and Henderson counties, and to compare anticipated effects under various pumping scenarios.

The Senate version passed Tuesday removed a moratorium in the original House bill that would ban issuing new permits until the study was completed.

The Texas House had approved Harris’s bill last week . The bill was one of three agenda items added

See Full Page