Unlike groundwater, which is owned by the landowner as a real property right, surface water is legally owned by the state in Texas. Texas owns the corpus of the surface water but allocates this water through the issuance of rights for beneficial use of the water. Most Texas surface water rights are held in perpetuity and can only be cancelled for non-use over an extended period of time (TWC 11.0235(a)). Such usufructuary rights are recognized as private rights and entitle the appropriator of a given amount of water from a particular diversion point for a particular beneficial use enumer- ated in law. Such rights can be bought and sold with minimal state review if the purpose of use is not changed in the transaction.
Economy
2019-20 LEGISLATOR’S GUIDE TO THE ISSUES
A comprehensive guide to the most important issues facing Texas during the 86th Session of the Legislature. Among the issues covered in this Guide are education, taxes and spending, health care, effective justice, private property rights, insurance, telecommunications, transportation, tort reform, energy, and natural resources.
September 7, 2018