DAINGERFIELD — Lake O’ the Pines holds deep personal significance for many residents, including Mary Spearmon.
Spearmon reflects on her life intertwined with the lake, recounting memories of family time spent swimming, fishing, and picnicking there.
It is a place where she met her husband, raised her children, and mourned his passing after 57 years together.
In March, Spearmon found herself standing alongside over 100 East Texans, demanding that a regional water utility halt plans to sell water from the lake to North Texas cities.
“What about our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren?” Spearmon implored.
“What legacy are we leaving for them?”
Residents in this corner of northeast Texas have been fixated on blocking a potential sale that would divert water from Lake O’ the Pines to Dallas suburbs such as Frisco and Forney, areas characterized by expansive growth.
These northern areas, filled with single-family homes and shopping centers, have increasingly sought more water to accommodate their development.
As one of Texas’s 188 reservoirs established for drinking purposes, Lake O’ the Pines spans nearly 18,700 acres across five northeast Texas counties: Marion, Harrison, Upshur, Morris, and Camp.
Developed in the 1950s in a thick pine forest near the Louisiana border, the lake has been integral for the surrounding communities, providing drinking water to cities like Avinger, Daingerfield, Hughes Springs, Jefferson, Lone Star, Ore City, and Pittsburg.
For the past 70 years, Lake O’ the Pines has shaped the local economy and culture; visitors flock for fishing, boating, and other recreational activities.
Jefferson resident Christopher Lepri voiced concerns, stating that selling the water could lead to a downturn in tourism and local property values.
“Lake O’ the Pines is East Texas’ lifeblood, and that lifeblood should never be for sale,” said Lepri.
The discussions regarding the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District’s proposed sale sparked months of heated meetings, online discussions, and accusations of secrecy.
By March, an official had resigned amid the rising tensions, and discussions around the sale had momentarily stalled.
However, worries lingered, as the conflict foreshadows potential outcomes if Texan lawmakers do not address the pressing water crisis.
The rapid urban expansion in North Texas, compounded by climate change and deteriorating infrastructure, threatens the state’s water supply.
The Texas Water Development Board, in charge of managing state water resources, has warned that Texas may not have sufficient water to meet demand during periods of severe drought.
East Texas, saturated with water resources, has thus been identified as a potential target for regions in need of water, prompting local residents to question whether one area should bear the burden of another’s growth.
Lake O’ the Pines was formed after the construction of Ferrells Bridge Dam on Big Cypress Creek, which historically flowed to Caddo Lake, a significant 25,400-acre body of water straddling the Texas-Louisiana border.
The establishment of the dam dramatically altered the water dynamics, nearly eliminating Caddo Lake’s water supply.
However, in the early 2000s, the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District began voluntary water releases to Caddo Lake in an effort to emphasize their connected fates.
In 2023, Laura-Ashley Overdyke, executive director of the Caddo Lake Institute, witnessed a conversation between Wayne Owen of the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District and a North Texas utility representative, who expressed interest in buying water mentioned by Owen.
Overdyke was taken aback, concerned that the water, critical for Caddo Lake, might be sold off without any public awareness.
“Was Caddo’s water going to be sold off to the highest bidder?” Overdyke wondered.
“Was East Texas a willing participant in her demise?”
Owen, who previously worked as a water planner in Tarrant County before joining the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District, confirmed there was substantial interest from North Texas water suppliers looking to secure more water supply from the Cypress Basin.
When Overdyke returned home to Shreveport, she began advocating for Caddo Lake, fully understanding the potential consequences a sale would have on both Caddo and Lake O’ the Pines.
Scientists later analyzed that Caddo Lake could endure additional water diversion 70% of the time without significant detriment; however, any excess diversion could lower the lake’s levels drastically.
“For a lake that shallow, it averages about five or six feet deep, losing another foot would be devastating,” Overdyke explained.
As discussions around the potential sale surfaced at a northeast water district board meeting, alarm bells sounded in the community.
Residents began mobilizing, attending city council meetings, and participating in town halls, voicing their concerns about the future of Lake O’ the Pines.
A significant town hall held in February drew over 400 locals, and another meeting at the Marion County Courthouse saw more than 100 attendees presenting their worries.
Jerry Thomas, an East Texas native, likened the struggle for water to that of past oil sales, stating, “We all grew up in East Texas and know people who sold rights to their oil and watched others get rich from it.”
Many voiced their concerns through letters to local officials, opinion pieces in community publications, and during public meetings, discussing the detrimental effects of a sale on the local economy, the ecology, and the culture of the area.
As highlighted in a 2020 report by the Texas A&M Forest Service, Lake O’ the Pines plays a vital role in local industries such as timber, poultry, dairy, and farming.
Recreational activities, such as boating and fishing for trophy bass, catfish, and crappie, attract substantial tourism revenue, sustaining livelihoods along its shoreline.
Despite the residents’ fervent responses, details surrounding the possible water extraction remained vague, inducing fear and frustration among locals as they imagined a scenario where a pipeline would drain the lake rapidly.
Distrust grew as the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District board members, representing the cities surrounding the lake, remained silent due to a nondisclosure agreement signed by Owen.
This lack of transparency only intensified community unrest.
“Water, itself, is a complicated thing,” said Sharilyn Parr, an activist working to provide accurate information to the public.
In Texas, surface water is state-owned, with rights allocated to entities like the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District.
The district has held the permit for Lake O’ the Pines since 1957, with allocations for both member cities and additional supplies sold to other East Texas cities like Longview.
Annually, the district is permitted to use 203,800 acre-feet of water, split between its member cities and other East Texas municipalities.
On a good weather year, the lake holds about 241,363 acre-feet of water, while flood conditions can increase this capacity to 842,100 acre-feet.
As negotiations moved forward, a nearby North Texas utility sought 75,000 acre-feet, enough to support nearly half a million residents annually, piped 91 miles to Lake Tawakoni.
Jenna Covington, executive director for North Texas Municipal Water District, viewed the potential deal as mutually beneficial, emphasizing the value of securing excess water while compensating East Texans accordingly.
However, no purchase price was disclosed.
Despite rising tensions, the arrangement of selling water rights has become increasingly rare, as demand surges.
Most transactions now involve leasing, granting temporary access without transferring control to the buyer.
Such funds could aid in upgrading the region’s water infrastructure, projected at a significant $74 million, enabling better capacity management and cost reduction.
After a public uproar over the proposed sale, Wayne Owen resigned as the executive director of the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District.
Owen termed his tenure a career milestone, asserting he was acting on directives to facilitate a sale.
At a meeting following his resignation, the board indicated they never intended to seriously pursue a sale of water from Lake O’ the Pines.
“If and when there is ever a proposed sale on the table that we think is worthy of consideration, we’re going to go to the cities, and we’ll present that sale, explain it, review the pros and cons, answer any questions they may have,” chair Jimmy Cox stated.
However, the crowd of more than 100 disgruntled East Texans remained doubtful.
Spearmon’s heartfelt narrative about her family and community connected with the assembly.
“If we sell our water to Dallas, what are we going to do? Are we going to move to Dallas to have water or purchase our water from Dallas?” she questioned.
“No. We don’t want to do that. No. We want our water. Please vote no.”
Spearmon believed her late husband would have been proud of her determination to speak out, though she humorously suggested he would have encouraged her to be even more assertive.
Kim Hall proposed a shift in focus, suggesting East Texas could provide assistance to North Texas to address their aging infrastructure issues instead of transferring water to them.
The leakage from deteriorating pipes results in a significant loss of the little water North Texas has left.
Former Republican State Rep. David Simpson commented, stating that public outcry had the potential to prevent the consummation of the sale.
Numerous residents called for the resignation of board members alongside Owen.
The meeting concluded with the board instating Osiris Brantley, a lifelong East Texan and the district’s chief financial officer, as interim general manager.
Although it represented a small victory, attendees acknowledged that the struggle was far from over.
“This is just the beginning,” asserted Marion County Judge Leward LaFleur.
Following the meeting, Dean, the state representative who had organized the town hall, shared on Facebook about their recent success.
“WE DID IT! WE SAVED OUR LAKES!” his post declared, referencing the North Texas Water District’s decision to seek local alternatives for water resources rather than pursuing Lake O’ the Pines.
The post garnered hundreds of likes and numerous congratulatory comments.
However, it may have been premature as the North Texas Municipal Water District clarified, stating, “While we’re not currently in active negotiations with the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District regarding a water purchase from Lake O’ the Pines, we continue to believe a future agreement for the sale of water could make sense for North Texas and Northeast Texas.”
As the chapter unfolds, the ongoing conflict signals the persistent challenges surrounding water rights and local advocacy amid an escalating water crisis in Texas.
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