Groundwater pumping in portions of the study area is regulated by the Hudspeth County Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 (HCUWCD) and the Culberson County Groundwater Conservation District.  Within Texas and outside of these districts, the Rule of Capture applies.  Most of the groundwater pumping occurs within the boundaries of the HCUWCD, which has implemented a regulatory program that limits groundwater pumping to existing and historic uses.  Groundwater pumping within the HCUWCD can be further limited based on the groundwater level in a single monitoring well.

In recent years, the area has been identified as a potential additional source of municipal water supply for El Paso, located about 85 miles west of Dell City.  El Paso Water Utilities has developed estimates of groundwater yield based on three numerical groundwater models that were developed using alternative conceptual models: one emphasized the structural geology of the area, one emphasized the isotopic signature of the groundwater, and one was a hybrid of the structural geology and isotopic models.  Calibration of all three models was considered successful, and highlights the issue of non-unique solutions in distributed parameter models. 

Simulations using the three calibrated models that followed the current regulatory approach of the HCUWCD resulted in estimates of groundwater yields.  The 50-year simulations included investigating the effect of alternative climatic scenarios that were based on a published dataset of 988 years of tree-ring data.  These simulations resulted in ranges of groundwater yield estimates, and reflected the uncertainty of future climatic conditions and the uncertainty associated with alternative conceptual models.