I wanted to get some information out about the rules and guidelines. The municipalities that sell water to their residents will have some restrictions put into place, but all in all, the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District is trying to protect the cities as much as they can. A draft of the rules will be put out to the public in the coming weeks, and there will be open forums for comments, etc. These rules will go into force by the end of the year / early next year according to the UTGCD.
This is likely not news to some who have vested interests (read – own land) in Parker, Montague, Hood and Wise counties, but the private well spacing is being increased. The current regulation for new water wells is that a new well can only be placed on a tract that is 2 acres or larger. There are always exceptions (grandfathered land due to existing wells or lots that were platted before the 2-acre spacing requirement)
This is being changed to 5 Acres.
The biggest piece of advice I could give is if you have land and are wanting to subdivide into smaller tracts – DO IT NOW. If you have platted lots, or even preliminary platted lots that are at least 2 acres, prior to the rules going into place, you will be able to have wells on those 2-acre tracts. Don’t let your preliminary plat expire though, because after the rules go into place, you would not be grandfathered anymore.
All of this has to do with drilling individual wells per tract. If you wanted to subdivide into smaller lots, you can always see where the closest municipal services are, or look into supplying water services privately.
Check out the link above to the UTGCD website, and feel free to contact me with any questions.
