Kyle Bass Hears Locals’ Opinions of His Groundwater Project

Greg Ritchie

Messenger Reporter

EAST TEXAS –   Dallas-based investor (and the man behind the multi-million dollar commercial well operation causing uproar) Kyle Bass delivered a personal and passionate address at the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District (NTVGCD) meeting this week, framing his proposed water project in East Texas as both a scientifically sound initiative and a necessary measure for the state’s future.

Many were surprised to see Bass in attendance, whether he wanted to hear from the angry residents, or perhaps did not quite expect the outcry the proposed project has caused. Many gave Bass begrudging acknowledgment — no matter your opinion of the man, his projects, or his tactics — he sat stoically though four hours of non-stop negative comments from lawmakers and residents. 

Bass and his attorney addressed the meeting before the public comments, where he talked about himself and tried to justify his motives behind the push for area groundwater. 

Bass, a longtime Texas resident and influential voice on U.S.-China economic relations, introduced himself not as a financier but as a son of East Texas. In his brief remarks, he traced his lineage to Henderson and Tyler, evoked his family’s Texas roots, and insisted his ambitions stem from love of land, heritage and state.

“I’ve been in Texas for 46 years,” Bass said. “I wear boots every day. I wear jeans every day they’ll let me. And I spend about all my time out here in Henderson County, right off of Lake Palestine.”

Bass, who has advised the U.S. military, intelligence community, and Treasury Department on China-related strategy, called the battle for Texas’s resources the next front in a larger struggle for American stability and sovereignty.

“My passion in life is facing that enemy,” he said, referring to China. “That is what I care most about—what we’re gonna be fighting against here soon, in my opinion.”

Bass pushed back strongly, using the majority of his three-minute speech to offer what he called a “quick view” of the state’s water dynamics—and to assert that his project was grounded in science and facts, not speculation.

“Nothing’s growing faster than the state of Texas,” he said. “The state’s main problems are power and water.”

According to Bass, Texas currently uses 17.5 million acre-feet of water per year. One acre-foot, he noted, is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land with one foot of water—about 326,000 gallons. The state’s consumption, he said, is evenly split between groundwater and surface water, with 2.5 million acre-feet coming from reuse.

But all of that water, he warned, is already fully allocated.

Citing the state’s 2022 water plan, Bass said Texas is projected to grow 73% in population between 2020 and 2070, while water usage is forecasted to rise just 9%.

“I said, ‘Well, I must be some dumb Wall Street guy,’” Bass recalled. “How can the state grow 73 and water only grow nine?”

The answer he received from officials, he said, was that they “hope there’s some technology that comes about.”

“That’s it?” Bass added, his voice sharpening.

Bass turned next to the specifics of his water request. In Anderson County, his team is asking for rights to 30,000 acre-feet per year. The aquifer in question, according to the Texas Water Development Board, holds 170 million acre-feet. In Henderson County, the request is 15,000 acre-feet from an aquifer containing 66 million.

“Whatever you’ve been reading about us trying to take all the water and going to leave the whole area out of water, I would never do that,” Bass said.

He underscored that the water he’s seeking amounts to less than one-tenth of one percent of available supplies in each county.

“We are doing things that are responsible by law and by science,” he said, urging listeners to separate rumors from data.

Bass’s positioned himself not as an outsider, but as someone deeply connected to the community, educated in-state on scholarship, and committed to “dying and being buried out at our ranch.”

Though the remarks were brief and did not seem to convince many in that room, Bass’ overall argument is undeniable: that Texas must embrace infrastructure and resource development to match its explosive population growth and maintain autonomy.

“We’re the fastest growing sovereign entity in the world,” Bass said. “And we are going to need to act like it.”

Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]