Well Water in Lee County, Texas: Exemptions, Export Fees, and a Live Rule Set

2025 changes to who even needs a well permit

Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District (LPGCD), which covers all of Lee County jointly with Bastrop County, updated its well-permit exemption rules in 2025. Historically, a domestic or livestock well on a tract of 10 acres or more could generally qualify as exempt from a full operating permit. The 2025 update adds a second, production-based path to that exemption: a well that is not capable of producing more than roughly 25,000 gallons per day can also qualify as exempt, regardless of whether the tract meets the older 10-acre threshold -- meaningful for owners of smaller Lee County tracts who previously might not have qualified for exempt status under the acreage test alone. This is a real, dated policy change (reported locally in spring 2025), not a static rule -- confirm the current exemption thresholds directly with LPGCD before assuming a specific well and tract combination qualifies.

For any non-exempt well -- generally larger-capacity irrigation, industrial, or export-oriented wells -- LPGCD requires an operating permit under its rules, adopted pursuant to Water Code Chapter 36 and the district's own enabling legislation (Special District Local Laws Code Chapter 8849). Because Lee County has been a focus of large-volume permit applications (see the county hub for the End Op/Recharge Water and LCRA permit history), a non-exempt well application here can draw more scrutiny, and potentially a contested-case hearing, than a comparable application in a district without that permitting history.

A real, current price tag on exporting Lee County groundwater

LPGCD charges a specific, published per-acre-foot fee on groundwater pumped within the district and exported outside it -- a fee mechanism most Texas GCDs use to both recoup administrative costs and create at least some economic friction on large-scale export compared to local use. For calendar year 2025, that export fee is set at $32.58 per acre-foot. This number is reviewed and can change from year to year, but its existence at all is a concrete, checkable fact about how the district treats a large permitted export volume differently, financially, from local agricultural or domestic use -- relevant context for understanding why export-permit applicants like LCRA and Recharge Water have specifically litigated over permitted volumes rather than simply drilling exempt wells.

The LCRA permit fight's current status

Beyond the 2018 End Op ruling covered on the county hub, a separate, more recent fight involves the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which applied in 2018 for operating and transport permits from LPGCD. That case went through a contested-case hearing, where administrative law judges initially found in favor of Environmental Stewardship (an intervenor opposing the permit as requested), before LPGCD's own board ultimately issued a permit -- for a smaller volume than LCRA had sought (8,000 acre-feet per year rather than the 25,000 AFY requested, per the county hub) -- with an enforceable condition requiring LCRA and the district to monitor the impact of the permitted pumping on surface water. LCRA appealed; the Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled on the case in mid-2024, and the court denied LCRA's motion for rehearing in November 2024, leaving the district's permit and its surface-water-monitoring condition in place as of this research. For a Lee County landowner near LCRA's permitted well sites, that monitoring condition is itself worth asking LPGCD about directly -- it means at least some pumping in the district now carries an ongoing, court-tested surface-water-impact check, not just a one-time permit approval.

What to verify before relying on a Lee County well

1. Confirm LPGCD's current exempt-well thresholds directly -- the district has recently added a production-based exemption test (roughly 25,000 gpd) alongside the older 10-acre/domestic-or-livestock test, and both are subject to further revision.
2. For a non-exempt or higher-capacity well, ask LPGCD whether the specific location falls near any existing or pending large-volume export permit, since those areas have drawn more contested-case activity historically.
3. Ask LPGCD for the current export fee per acre-foot if evaluating a well intended to supply water off the property or off Lee/Bastrop County land -- the rate is reviewed periodically and the $32.58/AF figure here is specific to 2025.
4. If buying land near an LCRA-permitted well site, ask LPGCD about the current surface-water-monitoring condition and whether it affects nearby private wells in any way.