Dr. Mace reports that groundwater management in Texas is complicated: The resource is complicated, the history is complicated, the law is complicated, and, for the time being, a certain level of legal uncertainty complicates everything. The purpose of this paper is to describe, as simply as possible, how groundwater management currently works in Texas and how we got there.
Here is the bottom-line recipe for getting you along your merry groundwater management way ...
1. Are you in a groundwater conservation district, a subsidence district, or the Edwards Aquifer Authority?
2. If the answer is NO, then the Rule of Capture rules, which means you can drill wherever you want and pump whatever you want whenever you want unless ...
(a) a previous owner has severed the groundwater rights from your surface estate in other words, someone else owns the groundwater beneath your property,
(b) you are inside a city boundaries in which case you should check with the city on how it may restrict groundwater pumping,
(c) you damage someone property through groundwater-pumping induced land subsidence, and someone sues you for it,
(d) you are wasting the water, or
(e) you are pumping it specifically to damage your neighbor.
3. If the answer is YES, then you need to check with the appropriate district or authority (including the city if you are inside a city) to find out what you can and cannot do.
4. Regardless of whether you answered YES or NO, you should keep close tabs on case law and the legislature (and the city, if applicable) due to rule changes and the general uncertainty of water law and what regulating bodies can and can not do.
For more details, the gossip, heartbreak, uplifting victories, and crushing defeats are below. Mace notes that any one of these sections warrants their own paper-length description and analysis. He has attempted to keep things accurate, has also attempted to keep things short and understandable.
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