82R9668 KYF-F
By: Miller of Erath H.B. No. 2398
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the ownership of and right to produce groundwater.
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 ownership
and rights of the owners of the land and their lessees and assigns
in groundwater, including the ownership of groundwater in place and
the right to produce groundwater, are hereby recognized, and
nothing in this code shall be construed as depriving or divesting
the owners or their lessees and assigns of the ownership or rights[,
except as those rights may be limited or altered by rules
promulgated by a district].
(b) The right of a landowner or the landowner's lessee or
assign to produce groundwater may be limited by a rule promulgated
by a district only if the rule is consistent with:
(1) Sections 3, 17, and 19, Article I, Texas
Constitution; and
(2) the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United
States Constitution.
(c) 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.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2011.