Settlement In Lawsuit Will Limit Exporting Water Out Of Brazos And Robertson Counties

Screen shot from a document provided by the city of College Station.
Screen shot from a document provided by the city of College Station.

Brazos County commissioners approved at their July 1st meeting without public comment, the settlement agreement reducing the amount of water being exported out of Brazos and Robertson counties.

This follows similar action last week by the Bryan and College Station city councils and the Brazos Valley groundwater conservation district.

Original story, June 27, 2025:

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that reduces the amount of water being exported out of Brazos and Robertson counties.

In June 2024, the Texas A&M system, joined later by the cities of College Station and Bryan and Brazos County, filed the suit after the Brazos Valley groundwater conservation district (BVGCD) granted water export permits to a group of landowners.

The settlement agreement was unanimously approved Tuesday (June 24) by the Bryan city council and by a six to one vote of the BVGCD board. The College Station city council unanimously approved the agreement on Thursday (June 26).

According to the settlement agreement that was provided to WTAW News by the city of College Station, “the parties mediated their disputes” earlier this month.

Click HERE to read and download the settlement agreement that was approved at the June 26, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

WTAW News was also provided a summary of the agreement by BVGCD general manager Alan Day.

Click HERE to read and download the BVGCD summary of the settlement agreement.

The settlement reduces the amount of water that can be exported from 100,000 acre feet per year to 50,000 acre feet per year (AFY). The new limit will be phased in over a 14 year period. The cap that is in place until January 1, 2034 is 23,000 AFY. Between January 1, 2024 and January 1, 2039, the cap is 39,000 AFY.

College Station city attorney Adam Falco said during Thursday’s council meeting that the company exporting the water will pay more than $180 million dollars over a 30 year period to cover the costs of local users drilling deeper wells to access the underground aquifers.

College Station councilman Mark Smith said the settlement “was the best possible outcome that we could get. The fact that we got a cap and they’re paying an export fee which will help pay for the mitigation of the impact of their drilling, these are all good things (and) these are great outcomes.”

At Tuesday’s Bryan council meeting, councilman James Edge said “I know the options that we’ve had as a city have been limited. And unfortunately none of those options are optimum.” “The settlement that’s been proposed has been the best option probably that we could negotiate. I feel like moving forward, in an effort to try and preserve water for our future citizens that is necessary that we limit the damage moving forward and hopefully at some point the legislature will come through and deal with the law in order to protect cities like Bryan and College Station in the future.”

At the BVGCD board meeting, there were no comments before the board vote.

As of June 27, no action has been taken by the Brazos County commission or the Texas A&M system board of regents.

Click below for comments from the June 26, 2025 College Station city council meeting and the June 24, 2025 Bryan city council meeting.

Listen to “Lawsuit settlement reduces the amount of water being exported out of Brazos and Robertson counties” on Spreaker.

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