AIPG-TX

Rima Petrossian, Ph.D., P.G., C.P.G., Manager of the Groundwater Technical Assistance Group of the Texas Water Development Board and her team just released: Texas Water Development Board Groundwater Management Report 17-01;  TWDB Trans-Border Aquifers Report: A Summary of Aquifer Properties, Policies, and Planning Approaches for Texas, Surrounding States, and Mexico (here).  Dr. Petrossian also serves as Vice President – Western Texas, of the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

Groundwater in Texas is a valuable natural resource shared with eight national and international states: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, in the United States; and Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila de Zaragoza, and Chihuahua, in Mexico. Of the 30 Texas aquifers that provide groundwater, 23 are shared with one or more other states. Internationally, Mexico and Texas share four major aquifers and three minor aquifers, based on the Texas definition of aquifers.

Decision makers and stakeholders for these shared groundwater resources have the complicated task for planning for and securing future resources without the commonality of administrative, legal, or policy approaches. Texas recognizes the importance of understanding the legal and
legislative frameworks, planning and policy approaches, path-dependent actions, and aquifer characteristics of bordering states. This understanding will aid efforts to manage the development and conservation of groundwater resources in the future.

Legal doctrines that address groundwater management in the study area include prior appropriation, absolute ownership or rule of capture with and without modifications, correlative rights with reasonable use, and federal ownership and control. Groundwater is governed via
various water doctrines which each state chooses, so a single aquifer may be subject to numerous conflicting laws, differing water management approaches, and unique public and private interests.

Texas and adjacent transborder areas encompass a wide variety of geologic terranes hosting diverse aquifer systems. The western and southern portion of the study area, including New Mexico, Mexico, and west Texas, has geologic features modified by tectonic activity, volcanic deposits, and basin-fill alluvial aquifers. In contrast, much of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana have more regional groundwater systems in extensive sedimentary geologic formations. Another aquifer boundary is the connection between coastal aquifers and Gulf of Mexico seawater.