TWDB outlines brackish groundwater potential; developers want clearer permitting and incentives

The Texas Water Development Board told the Senate committee that the state's brackish groundwater resource is vast but that recoverable volumes and project economics depend on site-specific studies and permitting clarity.

Natalie Beaulieu, TWDB Groundwater Division director, said BRACS work to date has identified roughly "3,300,000,000 acre feet of slightly to moderately saline groundwater" in place and that the board has designated 31 brackish production zones with an estimated combined production potential (30–50 year horizons) of about 120,000 acre-feet per year so far. She emphasized the difference between in-place storage and recoverable water and explained the buffer and modeling analysis TWDB uses to avoid impacts to overlying fresh users.

Municipal and industry witnesses pressed for regulatory differentiation, standardized concentrate disposal pathways and funded pilot wells to reduce project risk. Casey Stinson (7 Seas) said projects "routinely take 3 to 6 years before they have enough permitting certainty to begin construction," adding that most projects fail because the regulatory pathway is "unclear, fragmented, and politically uncertain." TSG Water Resources urged a $50 million state-funded program to drill test wells in promising zones and to streamline Class I injection approvals once a disposal stratum is demonstrated.

San Antonio Water System described its operational brackish plant (phase 1) and monitoring record showing no measurable impacts to overlying freshwater aquifers, and both SAWS and other witnesses advocated for incentives and clarity to incentivize brackish development rather than continued reliance on freshwater transfers.

What happens next: TWDB continues BRACS studies through 2032 and will process zone amendment requests as project data arrive; the committee signaled interest in funding test wells, fee-based expedited permitting and clarifying how DFCs interact with zone-funded projects.