The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Texas Senate Bill 41 caps groundwater export permits at 5 percent of district total
Last action · August 18, 2025: FiledSponsor: Robert Nichols
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What This Bill Proposed
Texas Senate Bill 41 prohibits a from issuing an export permit that allows an applicant to produce and transfer out of the district more than five percent of the total apportioned to that district.
Groundwater districts and applicants seeking to transport water out of a district face a new statutory ceiling on export volumes, altering local permitting decisions and regional water transfer planning.
- Groundwater conservation districts in Texas are local political subdivisions tasked with managing and protecting groundwater resources within their boundaries. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
groundwater conservation district
Groundwater conservation districts must restrict permit approvals to ensure no single applicant is authorized to export more than five percent of the district's modeled available groundwater.
groundwater permit applicants
Applicants seeking to produce and transfer groundwater out of a district face a statutory limit capping their total permitted export volume at five percent of the district's modeled available groundwater.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the maximum percentage of modeled available groundwater an applicant can be permitted to export?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · passed the Senate · in the House.
Procedural history
2 actions- Aug 18, 2025SenateIntroducedFiled
- Aug 18, 2025SenateReceived by the Secretary of the Senate
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Establishment of Export Permitting Cap
The legislation introduces a hard percentage cap on cumulative groundwater export permits issued to individual applicants by local districts.
Connected Entities
Sources
capitol.texas.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 60)
- Controversy45Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz25Current news / social attention level
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