Lake O’ the Pines water sale to DFW deserves close scrutiny

First published by the Longview News-Journal June 6, 2025

It is said that all roads lead to Rome, but the truth is that they lead to water. For decades planners from the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) have eyed East Texas as a source of water, but now they are engaged to take it on the sly.

Our shrewd neighbors from DFW sent their Trojan horse to East Texas several years ago. When the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District (NETMWD) directors took him in as a prize, the water lobby applauded. Soon its budget swelled and the gravy began to flow to the water hustlers and their attorneys; preparations for selling water to DFW began in earnest.

Who did the directors hire as general manager of NETMWD? A long-time DFW resident and employee of the Tarrant Regional Water District (1984–2021) and an advocate for taking homes, farms, and timberland from East Texans to build the Marvin Nichols reservoir to serve DFW.

Wayne Owen’s whole career has been spent on big city water interests and still is. Now as an insider, he is negotiating the sale of up to 100,000 acre feet of water from Lake O’ the Pines to DFW which in turn may facilitate the sale by others of another 50,000 acre feet from Ellison Creek Reservoir.

To frame this sale, Wayne Owen boasts that he has authority to sell 203,000 acre feet of water but has only sold 4000 acre feet of treated water.

But is the 4000 figure accurate? It took place in 2023 during a very wet year when people were not irrigating and SWEPCO was offline.

Initial studies by the Caddo Lake Institute indicate that withdrawing 130,000 acre feet of water from the basin may dry up the north end of Lake O’ the Pines and harm Caddo Lake. Siltation may have reduced the capacity of the lake by 61,000 acre feet. Also during the drought of 2011, this region used 51,000 acre feet of water.

The critical issue is not treated but raw water. Lots of raw water is already committed to and used by Longview. It is essential too for more natural flows into Caddo Lake and to provide for current and future growth of the populations and industries in East Texas. Mr. Owen claims that we may lose our water rights if we do not use the water. But Lake O’ the Pines water is protected by statute and it is being used by our region. Water is not wasted when it goes over the dam; it preserves priceless Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas.

The seven cities of Avinger, Daingerfield, Hughes Springs, Jefferson, Lone Star, Ore City and Pittsburg, which formed NETMWD, appoint their directors to serve as stewards of this region’s precious resource, not as courtiers to an emperor with no East Texan clothes. Allowing our neighbors in DFW to place their G-man on our side of the bargaining table to lead our negotiations with them is unfathomable.

Will the directors return the Trojan horse, end the infiltration, and remove the blatant conflict of interest? Perhaps enough courageous and humble souls will.

All East Texans but especially citizens of the seven cities should insist that the directors slow down, listen, question and discern what is law and fact and what are DFW ploys. Substantial conservation requirements, environmental guardrails, and economic limits and escalators must be required in any sales contract to protect our region and especially Caddo Lake.

We must ensure that public scrutiny occurs BEFORE a deal is cut by the NETMWD directors behind closed doors and that the councils of the seven cities deliberate in sunlight.

It’s time to choose. Will we be guardians or courtiers? Will we wisely preserve our region’s lakes for the next generation or sell them for a bowl of pottage? If the latter, brace yourself for the sucking sounds of pipes and pumps draining East Texas dry for DFW.

— David Simpson, an Avinger resident, is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 7 representing Gregg and Upshur counties.