Buying Land in Hansford County, Texas

Every Well Here Sits Inside an Active, Litigating Groundwater District

Case-by-case / verify locally

Unlike counties with no groundwater district at all, Hansford County sits entirely within the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District (NPGCD), headquartered in Dumas. NPGCD isn't a passive body -- a November 2024 federal court ruling affirmed its regulatory authority against a legal challenge, and its rules require every well in the district, exempt or not, to be registered, with non-exempt wells needing an actual production permit. Before counting on irrigation-scale water rights for a Hansford County tract, confirm the parcel's specific Groundwater Production Unit status and remaining allowable production directly with NPGCD (806-935-6401) -- this is a real permitting and production-cap layer on top of the statewide rule of capture, not a formality.

A Hard Production Cap: 1.5 Acre-Feet Per Acre

Case-by-case / verify locally

NPGCD limits annual groundwater production to 1.5 acre-feet per acre, administered across Groundwater Production Units of at least 1,600 contiguous acres -- landowners can combine adjoining tracts into a single GPU to reach that threshold and maximize their Annual Allowable Production. For a buyer evaluating irrigated farmland, this cap (not just the well's physical pump capacity) is what actually limits how much water a tract can legally produce in a given year, and it's a number worth getting in writing from the district for the specific parcel before assuming a given irrigation plan pencils out.

Small Domestic and Livestock Wells Are Exempt from Permitting -- But Still Must Register

Generally favorable

If the plan is a household well or a stock tank rather than irrigation, NPGCD exempts wells incapable of producing more than 17.5 gallons per minute (along with rig-supply wells) from its full permitting and spacing requirements. That exemption is not a free pass to skip the district entirely, though -- exempt wells still must be registered with NPGCD. A buyer planning only a domestic or livestock well faces a meaningfully lighter process than an irrigator, but should still expect a registration step, not zero contact with the district.