Opponents of Marvin Nichols Reservoir project in East Texas score a win — for now

Jess Hardin
·2 min read

The new state budget includes a victory for opponents of Marvin Nichols Reservoir, the proposed 66,000-acre impoundment in northeast Texas that would provide water to the Metroplex.

After extensive advocacy against the project by Preserve Northeast Texas, a campaign formed in 2021, the budget will include a provision that requires the Texas Water Development Board to conduct a feasibility study by 2025. It would also give opponents, including conservationists, ranchers, farmers and timber processors, more opportunity to state their case.

The study would analyze a timeline, costs, land acquisition considerations and the economic impact of the project along Sulpher River.

About two miles of the Sulphur River runs through Jim Marshall’s property in northeast Texas. The Marvin Nichols Reservoir project would dam up the Sulfur River, an action that Marshall and other Cuthand residents fiercely oppose.
About two miles of the Sulphur River runs through Jim Marshall’s property in northeast Texas. The Marvin Nichols Reservoir project would dam up the Sulfur River, an action that Marshall and other Cuthand residents fiercely oppose.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar certified the 2024-25 state budget on Wednesday; the $321.3 billion appropriations bill now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

The Marvin Nichols Reservoir project would flood thousands of acres of bottomland hardwood forest in Cuthand, 30 miles southeast of Paris and about 150 miles from the Metroplex.

Since 2000, the water region that includes DFW and the one that would include Marvin Nichols have fought over the necessity of the reservoir and when it would be built. The state’s 2021 water plan pushed up the project’s anticipated completion date by 20 years, from 2070 to 2050, galvanizing the latest campaign against the project.

Wood is cut in the process of making planks Oct. 19, 2022, at Ward Timber in Linden. Production at the mill would be heavily impacted if bottomland woods are flooded for the Marvin Nichols Reservoir project.
Wood is cut in the process of making planks Oct. 19, 2022, at Ward Timber in Linden. Production at the mill would be heavily impacted if bottomland woods are flooded for the Marvin Nichols Reservoir project.

In testimony, which referenced and distributed Star-Telegram reporting in February about the proposed reservoir, opponents of the project explained it’s not the only option for satisfying DFW’s future water needs.

“If this $5 billion project were the only way for the people of DFW to get water they’re going to need, that would be one thing. But, fortunately, that isn’t the case,” Janice Bezanson of Texas Conservation Alliance said in her testimony before the Texas House Natural Resources Committee in March.

In February, Abbott commented on the project and told CBS 19 in Tyler that all avenues should be explored before “taking people’s lands or flooding property that’s been around for literally centuries.”

Cows graze on land in northeast Texas that would be flooded if the 66,000 acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir project is approved.
Cows graze on land in northeast Texas that would be flooded if the 66,000 acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir project is approved.
Jim Marshall’s property in northeast Texas would be flooded if the Marvin Nichols Reservoir project is approved.
Jim Marshall’s property in northeast Texas would be flooded if the Marvin Nichols Reservoir project is approved.

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