TWDB grants advance groundwater science and management Posted on July 15, 2026
In passing Senate Bill 1, the 89th Texas Legislature appropriated funds to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to create and administer a program providing grants to groundwater conservation districts (GCDs) to conduct projects and programs for groundwater research, science, and data collection that benefit local groundwater management and planning. GCDs are the preferred method of groundwater management in Texas, and, under the Texas Constitution, GCDs have the authority to regulate water well spacing, water well production, or both.
This June, the TWDB awarded over $7 million to 43 GCDs across Texas to support eligible research and data initiatives that enhance the best available science for effective groundwater management and planning. Best available science is defined in Texas Water Code § 36.0015 as “conclusions that are logically and reasonably derived using statistical or quantitative data, techniques, analyses, and studies that are publicly available to reviewing scientists and can be employed to address a specific scientific question.” In other words, this means using the most trustworthy and up-to-date scientific information available and basing decisions on solid data and logical methods that other scientists can review and understand.
Grant applications had to be for projects in one of two categories:
- Groundwater research and science
- Groundwater data collection
The primary goal of category one is to further best available science in the state and support the implementation of effective groundwater resource management and planning. Groundwater research and science include projects like aquifer delineation and characterization, test hole drilling, aquifer monitoring, groundwater production studies, recharge zone protection strategies, spring system research, and more.
The primary goal of the second category is to enhance the collection, quality, and availability of groundwater data used by GCDs and the TWDB to improve the understanding of local groundwater conditions and support effective groundwater resource management and planning within a district and across the state. Groundwater data collection projects include equipment purchases for projects like groundwater use data, water level monitoring, well installation, subsidence monitoring, database creation or enhancement, and more.
There are 98 groundwater conservation districts in Texas, but because they are funded by fees and taxes, their budgets vary—and resource limitations can make it difficult for many GCDs to access best available science for their respective districts. These grants will go a long way towards helping groundwater conservation districts acquire the data and information they need to effectively manage groundwater resources.
The origins of groundwater conservation districts
In Texas, approximately 60 percent of water use statewide is supplied by groundwater, so the management and preservation of those resources have long been important issues. The legal foundation of groundwater management in Texas is the “rule of capture”, which means that landowners have a right to pump as much groundwater from beneath their land as they want, with the only limitations on that right being malicious use, waste, or negligently causing subsidence.
Over time, Texas refined and organized its approach to groundwater management, and with the Groundwater Conservation District Act of 1949, the Texas Legislature introduced GCDs as the only entities empowered to regulate groundwater and the only means of modifying the rule of capture. The Act also established groundwater as a private property right and defined groundwater and surface water as legally distinct types of water that were to be managed differently.
GCDs, GMAs, and water planning
Most of the 98 groundwater conservation districts operating in Texas today were created after 1997, and those GCDs enable a more broad and systematic approach to groundwater regulation and planning. Here’s how it works:
GCDs are grouped into 16 groundwater management areas to conduct joint groundwater planning for the future. The representatives in a groundwater management area (GMA) meet at least once a year to conduct joint planning, which includes adopting desired future conditions every five years. Desired future conditions are policy decisions made by district representatives in a groundwater management area and are expressed in different ways—including water levels, springflow, storage volumes, and subsidence. GCDs must manage groundwater to achieve the desired future conditions.
There are nine factors that must be considered during this groundwater planning process, including hydrologic conditions, property rights, socioeconomic impacts, and environmental impacts. District representatives in GMAs use groundwater availability models developed by the TWDB to assess various scenarios when developing desired future conditions. District representatives document the process in a report, which is reviewed by the TWDB. The policy decisions embodied in the desired future conditions, combined with science, determine groundwater availability for the state water plan and guide the regulatory decisions GCDs make as they plan for the future of our water supplies.
This article is posted in Water Planning / Groundwater / Conservation / Water Data .