Texas Groundwater Rights

and Markets
Bob Harden, PE

State of Affairs
Legal / Regulatory
Groundwater
Conditions

Texas Groundwater Law

Doctrine of Absolute Ownership
Rule of Capture
Conservation Act
State has right to regulate

Day v. EAA (2012)

Groundwater is Private Property
As with oil and gas, one purpose of
groundwater regulation is to afford each
owner of water in a common, subsurface
reservoir a fair share.152
152

See Elliff v. Texon Drilling Co. (1948)

Elliff v. Texon (1948)

..our courts, in decisions involving well-spacing
regulations of our Railroad Commission, have
frequently announced the sound view that each
landowner should be afforded the opportunity
to produce his fair share beneath his land,
which is but another way of recognizing the
existence of correlative rights between the
various landowners over a common
reservoir

Correlative Rights
Recognized

North Plains Groundwater Conservation District

Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District
Gonzales County Underground Water Cons. District
Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District
Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Cons. District
Others

Ch 36.116 Regulation of Spacing and Production

Historical GCD Enabling

Legislation
GCDs first authorized -Chapter 306 (1949)
GCD boundaries must be coterminus with
reservoir being regulated

SB 1212 (1989)
GCD boundaries can be coterminous or
inside the common reservoir

Groundwater
Management Areas
Groundwater Management Areas (1995)
Collections of GCDs
overlying common reservoirs
Defined and Adopted in 2002
Can set management goals that assist in
defining regulations

Facilitating Groundwater
Markets
More consistency in regulations
Fair share, correlative rights defined for
each common reservoir
Long term permitting

Present Groundwater
Conditions
in Texas

Pressure
Vs.
Storage

Bob Harden,
PE

RW Harden & Associates

3409 Executive Center Drive #226
Austin, Texas 78731
ph:
512-345-2379
email: bob.harden@rwharden.com
www.rwharden.com