Well Water and Groundwater Rules in Montgomery County, Texas

The 70%-by-2016 mandate, and why it existed

In 2006, the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District's board adopted a long-term planning mandate requiring all large-volume groundwater users in Montgomery County -- municipalities, utility districts, and other big pumpers, not individual domestic well owners -- to cut their groundwater use countywide to 70% of their 2009 baseline demand by January 1, 2016. Large-volume users were required to file Groundwater Reduction Plans by April 2011 showing how they would hit that target, largely by converting a share of their supply from groundwater to surface water drawn from Lake Conroe. The rationale wasn't simple scarcity: it was measured land subsidence and fault-line movement tied to aquifer compaction, a genuinely different regulatory driver than the production caps and spacing rules that govern most Texas groundwater districts. A peer-reviewed 2000-2020 InSAR study published in the journal Geoenvironmental Disasters documented measurable land subsidence and aquifer compaction specifically in Montgomery County over that two-decade span, and contemporaneous reporting linked continued heavy pumping to fault-line movement and structural damage in parts of the county -- this is not a hypothetical concern raised only by the district itself.

A court declared the rule 'void and unenforceable' in 2019

The City of Conroe and other large-volume users challenged LSGCD's mandate, arguing the district had exceeded its statutory authority in how it structured the reduction requirement. That fight ended in a final judgment signed by a senior district judge in May 2019, declaring LSGCD's Large-Volume Groundwater User Rule void and unenforceable as part of a compromise and settlement agreement that also dismissed the related interlocutory appeal and other claims with prejudice. Separately, and on more than one occasion, the Texas Water Development Board rejected LSGCD's newly proposed groundwater management plans for the county, finding aspects of the district's stated management goals did not meet state planning requirements. Put together, this is a genuine, multi-year regulatory dispute over exactly how a district may legally force large users off groundwater and onto surface water -- not a story where a single clean rule has simply applied since 2001 and can be looked up once and trusted indefinitely.

Where things stand now, and what a well buyer should actually ask

LSGCD did not disappear after the 2019 judgment -- it continued commissioning technical work, including a multi-firm subsidence-monitoring study that began in 2019 and was still being developed with public comment periods as recently as 2022, and the district's board approved a new 2025 groundwater management plan on May 19, 2025. Reporting around that 2025 plan describes new rules intended to replace the specific pumping restrictions the 2019 judgment had voided, with some coverage characterizing the change as easing prior restrictions in areas including The Woodlands. Because the exact current permitted countywide pumpage figure, the applicability of any large-volume-user requirements, and the district's current position following the 2025 plan are all things this research found actively in flux rather than settled, a buyer relying on a well -- particularly a larger-volume well serving a subdivision, MUD, or commercial use rather than a single household -- should ask LSGCD directly for the currently effective rules, not assume either the pre-2019 70% mandate or a simple return to unrestricted pumping. For an individual domestic or small livestock well, standard Texas exemption thresholds are more likely to apply, but confirming registration requirements directly with LSGCD is still the safer course given how much this district's rules have moved.

• Ask LSGCD directly which rules are currently in effect for the specific well type and volume you're planning -- do not rely on the pre-2019 70%-reduction figure or assume it still applies.
• If evaluating land served by an existing large-volume well (a subdivision, MUD, or commercial operation), ask for that well's current permitted status and any surface-water conversion requirements under the district's 2025 management plan.
• For land near a mapped fault zone, ask LSGCD or a geotechnical professional whether the parcel falls within an area where subsidence-linked structural movement has been documented, given the county's own 2000-2020 subsidence findings.
• Confirm whether a specific well qualifies for a standard domestic/livestock exemption, since that changes what registration or permitting is actually required.