Bill Text: TX SB332 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to the ownership of groundwater below the surface of land, the right to produce that groundwater, and the management of groundwater in this state.

Sponsorship: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2011-06-17 - Effective on 9/1/11 [SB332 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-SB332-Enrolled.html

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S.B. No. 332

AN ACT
relating to the ownership of groundwater below the surface of land,
the right to produce that groundwater, and the management of
groundwater in this state.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 36.002, Water Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 36.002. OWNERSHIP OF GROUNDWATER. (a) The
legislature recognizes that a landowner owns the groundwater below
the surface of the landowner's land as real property.
(b) The groundwater ownership and rights described by this
section:
(1) entitle the landowner, including a landowner's
lessees, heirs, or assigns, to drill for and produce the
groundwater below the surface of real property, subject to
Subsection (d), without causing waste or malicious drainage of
other property or negligently causing subsidence, but does not
entitle a landowner, including a landowner's lessees, heirs, or
assigns, to the right to capture a specific amount of groundwater
below the surface of that landowner's land; and
(2) do not affect the existence of common law defenses
or other defenses to liability under the rule of capture.
(c) Nothing [The ownership and rights of the owners of the
land and their lessees and assigns in groundwater are hereby
recognized, and nothing] in this code shall be construed as
granting the authority to deprive [depriving] or divest a
landowner, including a landowner's lessees, heirs, or assigns,
[divesting the owners or their lessees and assigns] of the
groundwater ownership and rights described by this section [or
rights, except as those rights may be limited or altered by rules
promulgated by a district].
(d) This section does not:
(1) prohibit a district from limiting or prohibiting
the drilling of a well by a landowner for failure or inability to
comply with minimum well spacing or tract size requirements adopted
by the district;
(2) affect the ability of a district to regulate
groundwater production as authorized under Section 36.113, 36.116,
or 36.122 or otherwise under this chapter or a special law governing
a district; or
(3) require that a rule adopted by a district allocate
to each landowner a proportionate share of available groundwater
for production from the aquifer based on the number of acres owned
by the landowner [A rule promulgated by a district may not
discriminate between owners of land that is irrigated for
production and owners of land or their lessees and assigns whose
land that was irrigated for production is enrolled or participating
in a federal conservation program].
(e) This section does not affect the ability to regulate
groundwater in any manner authorized under:
(1) Chapter 626, Acts of the 73rd Legislature, Regular
Session, 1993, for the Edwards Aquifer Authority;
(2) Chapter 8801, Special District Local Laws Code,
for the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District; and
(3) Chapter 8834, Special District Local Laws Code,
for the Fort Bend Subsidence District.
SECTION 2. Section 36.101, Water Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1) to read as
follows:
(a) A district may make and enforce rules, including rules
limiting groundwater production based on tract size or the spacing
of wells, to provide for conserving, preserving, protecting, and
recharging of the groundwater or of a groundwater reservoir or its
subdivisions in order to control subsidence, prevent degradation of
water quality, or prevent waste of groundwater and to carry out the
powers and duties provided by this chapter. In adopting a rule
under this chapter, a district [During the rulemaking process the
board] shall:
(1) consider all groundwater uses and needs;
(2) [and shall] develop rules that [which] are fair
and impartial;
(3) consider the groundwater ownership and rights
described by Section 36.002;
(4) consider the public interest in conservation,
preservation, protection, recharging, and prevention of waste of
groundwater, and of groundwater reservoirs or their subdivisions,
and in controlling subsidence caused by withdrawal of groundwater
from those groundwater reservoirs or their subdivisions,
consistent with the objectives of Section 59, Article XVI, Texas
Constitution;
(5) consider the goals developed as part of the
district's management plan under Section 36.1071; and
(6) [and that do] not discriminate between land that
is irrigated for production and land that was irrigated for
production and enrolled or participating in a federal conservation
program.
(a-1) Any rule of a district that discriminates between land
that is irrigated for production and land that was irrigated for
production and enrolled or participating in a federal conservation
program is void.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 332 passed the Senate on
March 30, 2011, by the following vote: Yeas 28, Nays 3; and that
the Senate concurred in House amendments on May 27, 2011, by the
following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 1.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
I hereby certify that S.B. No. 332 passed the House, with
amendments, on May 24, 2011, by the following vote: Yeas 147,
Nays 0, two present not voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
Approved:
______________________________
Date
______________________________
Governor