Sep 24, 2026 · 51 min · 23 segments
If you are buying or selling rural land in Texas, there is a new disclosure related to water rights that you need to be aware of! We have Charles Porter joining us to walk us through Texas water law…
Tiffany Dowell LashmetHostIt's regulated by a groundwater conservation district where they exist and not everywhere in the state has elected to have a groundwater district.
We tend in Texas to very much like local control, and I think in a lot of ways, many ways, it's a good deal because we're not Rhode Island.
We always thought that, and finally it was all secured and put in the statutes very clearly in 2011.
We have a vested right in that groundwater, which means they can't take it from a property owner without just compensation.
In 19, around the first of the 20th century, all the railroads in Texas had finally converged as they began to consolidate, and they went through Denison, Texas, and the Houston, Texas Central Railway Company knocked on Mr. East's door, who was a policeman there, and said, how's the water in your well? And next thing you know, they dug a 60-foot deep hole, 25-foot wide, and started pumping 25,000 gallons a day plus out of the groundwater.
It went through a long process, and I've done a bunch of, I wrote an article in the East Texas Historical Journal about it.
And unless I take the water maliciously or waste it or cause subsidence, I can do what I want with my groundwater.
If there's a groundwater conservation district involved, that can modify the rule of capture.
But even a GCD, Tiffany, let's say you and I are next door neighbors and say the panhandle is somewhere and we're in High Plains District number one and we both have a right to pull 50,000 acre feet a year, which is ridiculous, out of a center pivot.
It's regulated by a groundwater conservation district where they exist and not everywhere in the state has elected to have a groundwater district.
We tend in Texas to very much like local control, and I think in a lot of ways, many ways, it's a good deal because we're not Rhode Island.
We always thought that, and finally it was all secured and put in the statutes very clearly in 2011.
We have a vested right in that groundwater, which means they can't take it from a property owner without just compensation.
In 19, around the first of the 20th century, all the railroads in Texas had finally converged as they began to consolidate, and they went through Denison, Texas, and the Houston, Texas Central Railway Company knocked on Mr. East's door, who was a policeman there, and said, how's the water in your well? And next thing you know, they dug a 60-foot deep hole, 25-foot wide, and started pumping 25,000 gallons a day plus out of the groundwater.
It went through a long process, and I've done a bunch of, I wrote an article in the East Texas Historical Journal about it.
And unless I take the water maliciously or waste it or cause subsidence, I can do what I want with my groundwater.
If there's a groundwater conservation district involved, that can modify the rule of capture.
But even a GCD, Tiffany, let's say you and I are next door neighbors and say the panhandle is somewhere and we're in High Plains District number one and we both have a right to pull 50,000 acre feet a year, which is ridiculous, out of a center pivot.
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