In the rolling hills of northeast Texas, where families have worked the same land for seven generations, a government-sanctioned land grab is brewing that should alarm every Texan who values private property rights. The proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir represents everything wrong with how government treats rural communities – and it’s a perfect example of why Texas needs to control its own destiny.
The Texas Water Development Board recently submitted a report to Governor Greg Abbott declaring the $7 billion Marvin Nichols Reservoir project “feasible.” What they really mean is that it’s feasible to use the power of eminent domain to seize up to 200,000 acres of private property in Red River, Titus, Delta, Lamar, and Franklin counties – forcing over 1,000 families from land their ancestors have called home since the 1830s.
Let that sink in for a moment. We’re talking about one of the largest eminent domain seizures in Texas history, all so Dallas-Fort Worth can continue its uncontrolled expansion without having to make the hard choices about conservation and resource management within their own communities.
Government Taking What It Wants
The proposed reservoir would flood 66,000 acres of productive agricultural land and hardwood forest, pumping 80% of that water more than 100 miles away to support the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The remaining 20% would stay in the Sulphur River Basin for local use – a classic example of government deciding how to divvy up resources that don’t belong to them in the first place.
Eddie Belcher, a 63-year-old cattle rancher whose family has worked the same Red River County land for seven generations, put it plainly: “You can’t put a price on generational land but that doesn’t matter because it’s not for sale.” Unfortunately, under current law, whether it’s for sale doesn’t matter. The government can simply take it.
“I just want to be left alone,” Belcher said, standing on roughly 700 acres that have been nurtured by his family since before Texas was even a state. That simple desire – to be left alone on your own property – apparently doesn’t count for much when urban water districts come calling.
The Real Problem: Unlimited Growth Without Consequence
What we’re seeing with Marvin Nichols is the inevitable result of what I call growth without consequence. The Dallas-Fort Worth area continues expanding without any thought to the strain this puts on infrastructure and resources. Rather than implement serious conservation measures, repair existing infrastructure, or tap into already available water sources, they’ve decided it’s easier to reach their tentacles into rural Texas and take what they want.
This is the same mentality that drives unrestricted illegal immigration – the idea that you can have unlimited expansion without considering the consequences on infrastructure, resources, and the people who actually live in the affected communities. It’s growth for growth’s sake, with no thought to sustainability or fairness.
The irony is rich. Dallas-Fort Worth uses roughly half their water for lawn watering and other non-essential uses, but rather than address that waste, they want to flood productive farmland and force families from their homes. That’s not water management. That’s water imperialism.
Alternatives Ignored
Northeast Texas residents and water experts have repeatedly pointed to alternatives that would provide the water Dallas-Fort Worth claims to need without destroying rural communities:
- Tapping existing water resources like Lake Texoma and Toledo Bend Reservoir
- Increased reuse and recycling of existing supplies
- Conservation measures and fixing leaky infrastructure
- Reallocation of water from existing reservoirs like Wright Patman Lake
- New technologies for water capture and treatment
These solutions exist and would be far less expensive than the $7 billion Marvin Nichols project. But they would require Dallas-Fort Worth to actually manage their resources responsibly rather than simply taking someone else’s land.
As one northeast Texas farmer pointed out during public hearings: “Dallas-Fort Worth doesn’t want our water. They want our land.”
A Pattern of Government Overreach
The Marvin Nichols situation is part of a broader pattern of government agencies using eminent domain to benefit private interests at the expense of property owners. We’ve been promised eminent domain reform for years, but it never comes because there’s always some crisis of the day that takes priority.
Meanwhile, rural communities get trampled by the needs of urban areas that refuse to live within their means. It’s the same dynamic we see with federal policy – Washington making decisions that benefit certain constituencies while rural and conservative areas bear the costs.
State Representative Gary VanDeaver, whose district includes the affected counties, has been leading the fight against this land grab. He’s called it what it is: one of the largest eminent domain seizures in Texas history and one of the most expensive public works projects ever proposed in the state.
But even with legislative opposition, the project continues moving forward. The Texas Water Development Board’s feasibility study conspicuously avoided examining alternatives or addressing the human cost of displacing over 1,000 families. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.
Generational Land vs. Government Greed
What makes this particularly heartbreaking is the generational nature of the land being targeted. We’re not talking about recent developments or speculative real estate. These are families that have worked the same soil for 150 years or more.
Gary Cheatwood, 85, has lived in Cuthand his entire life and can recite the history of his community going back to when Indigenous peoples first inhabited the land. His son, Gary Jr., continues the family tradition on the same property. “This will wipe out these communities here,” the elder Cheatwood said. “We’ll be history with nowhere to go.”
That’s exactly the point. These aren’t just property seizures – they’re the destruction of entire communities, ways of life, and economic ecosystems that have sustained northeast Texas for generations.
The timber industry, which provides major economic support for the region, would be devastated. Agricultural operations that feed Texas and beyond would be eliminated. And for what? So suburban Dallas can continue watering lawns and avoiding the responsibility of living sustainably.
The Independence Solution
This is precisely why Texas needs to reassert its independence and control its own destiny. When government agencies can simply decree that your family’s generational land is needed for someone else’s convenience, you don’t have property rights – you have government-granted privileges that can be revoked at will.
An independent Texas would prioritize the rights of Texans over the convenience of government planners. We would have water policies that encourage conservation and responsible growth rather than enabling unlimited expansion at rural expense. Most importantly, we would have leaders accountable to Texans rather than to federal bureaucrats or corporate interests.
The Marvin Nichols project represents everything wrong with our current system – unaccountable government agencies making decisions that benefit urban interests at rural expense, with no regard for property rights or community preservation. It’s a preview of what’s coming if we continue down this path.
Fighting Back
The good news is that northeast Texans aren’t giving up without a fight. Groups like Preserve Northeast Texas are organizing resistance, and recent mediation has pushed back the project timeline to 2070. But that’s just buying time – it’s not solving the fundamental problem.
One Red River County landowner made his position clear: “You can send the Texas Rangers, the FBI, the National Guard. I will not leave.” That’s the spirit of Texas that built this state in the first place.
Every Texan should pay attention to what’s happening in northeast Texas because it can happen anywhere. Today it’s Marvin Nichols. Tomorrow it could be your community facing government seizure for someone else’s benefit.
The message from Dallas-Fort Worth and the state water board is clear: your property, your community, and your way of life are expendable if they stand in the way of unlimited urban growth. That’s not the Texas way, and it’s not the American way.
It’s time to stand with our fellow Texans in the northeast and demand that property rights mean something more than government convenience. And it’s time to seriously consider whether a system that allows this kind of abuse is worth preserving at all.
Texas independence isn’t just about political theory – it’s about protecting Texas families like the Belchers and the Cheatwoods from government agencies that view their land as nothing more than a resource to be seized for someone else’s benefit.
The question is whether we’ll stand with them, or whether we’ll let government greed triumph over Texas values. The choice is ours, but time is running out.
For more information about the fight against Marvin Nichols Reservoir, visit preservenortheasttexas.org. To support Texas independence and property rights, visit tnm.me.
“Groups like Preserve Northeast Texas are organizing resistance, and recent mediation has pushed back the project timeline to 2070. But that’s just buying time – it’s not solving the fundamental problem.”
The fundamental problem is a moral one. Virtually everyone on earth believes that human beings are the means to each other’s ends. Until at least a sizable minority of humanity comes to the opposite conclusion–that every person is an end in himself and not the means to the ends of others–moral outrages like Marvin Nichols will continue. When enough people react in disgust to the idea that they should be the receivers of stolen goods the Marvin Nichols project will get dropped. Not until then.