The Middle Trinity Groundwater Conservation District approved rules changes establishing management zones in Coryell and Bosque Counties following public hearings at the regular meeting Sept. 10 in their Stephenville office.
MTGCD General Manager Patrick Wagner delivered a presentation on the proposed changed which state that any new non-exempt wells in Bosque and Coryell counties are subject to stricter guidelines due to observed problems with bigger drawdown and slower recharge of water into the aquifers.
The new rules dictated that any new non-exempt well presented for permit after Sept. 11, 2026 are now restricted to 1 acrefoot per acre in Bosque and .5 acre-foot per acre in Coryell. Guidelines are 3 acre-feet per acre in MTGCD’s other member counties, Erath and Comanche.
New non-exempt wells in Bosque and Coryell 30 gallons per minute or greater are now required to have a meter. Hydrogeologic water testing is now also required for the highest capacity wells including pump tests and access to monitoring equipment.
In Bosque, wells 200 GPM or greater require a pumping well, monitoring well and a hydrogeologic report. Those requirements are the same for any Coryell well 100 GPM or greater.
A minimum acreage of 5 acres was also established for any Bosque or Coryell landowner subdividing land after the date of adoption and wanting drill a new non-exempt well. “A lot of that is just due to the drawdown we’ve been observing,” said Wagner, adding that the area just can’t support a lot of big wells. “Even with current pumping there’s some big declines [in the modeling].”
They also approved a $1.67 million budget including $300,000 for monitoring wells in southeast Coryell County including expenses that will be offset by a grant from the Texas Water Development Board.
The board also unanimously approved a tax rate of $.005890 per $100 valuation, dropping from the previous rate of $.005950 in 2025.