Two new pieces of legislation filed by District 1 State Representative Gary Van-Deaver and District 5 State Representative Cole Hefner have the potential to erase the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir in Northeast Texas from the state water plan and end the decades long threat it has posed to landowners and the economy. Also sponsoring the bill are House District 7 Rep. Jay Dean and House District 62 Rep. Shelley Luther.
House Bill 2109 as proposed states that if a current water project has been a piece of the official Texas Water Development Board state plan for 50 years or more, without any construction being done, it would be removed for consideration.
The proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir, the behemoth water project and land grab in the Sulphur River basin, has been a part of that water plan since 1968, putting it at 57 years. The new legislation, if passed, erases it.
The proposed bill reads: Section 1. Section 16.0511, Water Code, is added as follows: Sec. 16.0511. Removal of a proposed reservoir project from the State Water Plan. (a) The executive administrator shall remove a proposed reservoir project from the state water plan if construction has not begun within 50 years if being included in any version of the plan by the Board or its preceding authority. Section 2, Section 16.0511, Water Code, as added by this Act, applies to a proposed reservoir project included in any version of the state water plan for the previous 50 years or more. Once a proposed project has been removed by the executive administrator, the project is not eligible for inclusion in any future version of the plan.
A companion bill, House Bill 2114 would further dampen the efforts of those seeking to take Northeast Texas lands by limiting engineering firms that have long sought to profit at the hands of Texas landowners. HB 2114 seeks to eradicate obvious conflicts of interests by making it mandatory that an engineering firm that has had input into the Texas Water Development Board to map out water projects that need to be pushed ahead can now not be the firm that is awarded the projects construction.
Both of these new bills would go a long way to halt eminent domain land grabs and the forced sale of Northeast Texas lands to build Marvin Nichols and other projects like it.
Northeast Texas landowners and businesses like Ward Timber who depend on the bottomland hardwoods that would be lost have fought the lake’s construction for over two decades.
The actions of Rep. Van-Deaver and his fellow lawmakers continue a trend in state politics that seem to favor those opposed to the 66,000 acre proposed reservoir in the Sulphur River bottoms.
Lubbock, Texas Senator Charles Perry, recently called Marvin Nichols “eminent domain purgatory.”
Rep. VanDeaver called the two bills an attempt to “help block the further development and land grab of the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir.”
Rep. VanDeaver has also stated, “There’s an entire generation of landowners in Red River, Bowie County, you know, where this project is proposed, that, you know, they’re afraid to build a home. They’re afraid to build a barn or a permanent fence on their property. And it’s time to set them free.”
Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced his opposition to Marvin Nichols and similar projects.
In a television interview in 2023, Governor Abbott spoke about the controversy over the lake, saying the words that the folks in Northeast Texas needed to hear from Austin for a long time. Gov. Abbott stated, “What we must do is explore other options.”
Abbott said no option should ever include taking somebody’s land, and that is the message that those who are opposed to the lake’s construction have been saying for more than 20 years.
Rep. VanDeaver has requested hearings before the House Committee on Natural Resources, but as of yet they have not been scheduled. These bills are a high priority to VanDeaver because stopping the construction of Marvin Nichols is important to his constituents and NE Texas.
