Senate Committee backs bill to allow treated surface water storage injection beneath Edwards‑aquifer protection zone

Senate Bill 616, carried for Senator Schwartner and presented by Senator Johnson, would modify existing limits to permit aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) operations that inject treated potable water into a deeper, cement‑sealed geologic formation beneath areas covered by Edwards Aquifer protections in Williamson County and east of I‑35.

Senator Johnson explained the statute enacted to protect the Edwards Aquifer from waste injection unintentionally blocked newer ASR technology for storing treated surface water in deeper formations that are pressure sealed and isolated from the Edwards. "What this bill does is make it possible for the newly developed aquifer storage recovery injection to go into that area at a deeper geologic formation," Johnson said, adding that the water to be injected is treated potable water and that the change would both protect the Edwards Aquifer and make treated water available for future use.

Brian Sledge and Matt Phillips of the Brazos River Authority testified in support. Sledge noted the bill had passed both chambers in the previous session with large margins but did not reach the governor during the prior cycle; he said the measure had broad bipartisan support previously and is now before the committee again. Phillips said ASR is a needed tool to meet future water demand in high‑growth areas of the basin and that most injections would use unused entitlement in a given year rather than releases from other lakes.

Committee members asked technical questions about whether transfers out of reservoirs would require backfilling from other lakes; BRA witnesses said they did not anticipate drawing water from other lakes to refill storage and expected reliance on natural inflows and rainfall.

The committee voted 6–0 to report SB 616 favorably and recommended it be reported to the full Senate as local and uncontested.