State denies bid for Brazos River rights

Large plan lacked specificity

Matt Dietrichson, Jan 27, 12.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday turned away a request for the rights of Brazos River water because the application lacked specificity, according to The Houston Chronicle:

The three-member commission did not reject the application outright, but told the Brazos River Authority that it must submit a detailed plan for the water within 10 months. If the river authority fails to meet the deadline, the permit application would be denied.

TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw urged the river authority to address the concerns with the permit application, which requested rights to divert about 1 million acre-feet of water from the Brazos for future sale to cities, industry and others.

“There is a lot of public benefit involved in this permit application,” Shaw said, “but we need to have a level of comfort in the protectiveness of this permit” on existing water rights.

Diversion sites not set

Typically in Texas, an applicant seeks to divert a specific amount of water, at a certain location for an identified purpose.

The BRA wanted a two-step process, in which the TCEQ first would grant the water rights and later approve the diversion. The authority asserts that it cannot develop a management plan until it knows how much water it can divert.

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