A Dallas investor’s controversial plan to export East Texas groundwater appears poised to move forward, as lawmakers killed a bill that would have delayed the project by two years.
On Wednesday night, state Rep. Cody Harris, a Palestine Republican and the bill’s author, blamed the state Senate for the legislation’s failure, saying the chamber stripped a key provision that would have put a moratorium on new export permits while the Texas Water Development Board studied the effects of pumping groundwater from the area’s aquifers. The House voted not to accept the Senate changes.
“The Senate gutted the most important part of this bill,” Harris said late Wednesday. A moratorium would have given lawmakers “a chance … to make sure we are being good stewards of our most precious natural resource, water,” he said. “One part of the bill is worthless without the other.”…