by By Leslie Lee, published in Texas Water Resources Institute’s summer 2024 issue of txH2O magazine
For most of the 20th century, organized management of groundwater pumping in Texas was largely nonexistent. The rule of capture was the law, and how to steward groundwater resources was left up to landowners.
“When tracing the roots of groundwater law and management in Texas, all roads lead east, and more specifically, to the East decision,” said Trey Gerfers, general manager of the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD).
That 1904 court decision, East v. Houston and Texas Central Railroad Company, made the rule of capture the foundational precedent of Texas groundwater law, in the absence of any state legislation. Texas property owners owned all groundwater under their land and could pump as much as they saw fit. (Learn more in “Texas’ Most Infamous Groundwater Lawsuits.”)
In 1949, the Texas State Legislature did eventually weigh in on groundwater management. It authorized the creation of local groundwater conservation districts (GCDs), now codified in Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code, granting districts limited powers and requiring GCDs to work to manage, conserve and protect groundwater through rule-making and well-permitting.
Texas’ first GCD, High Plains Underground Water Conservation District Number 1, was created in 1951.
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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Texas, Kansas and Arizona, three states representative of increasingly stressed U.S. groundwater supplies, work to prevent aquifer depletion
More Information
- Locally Enhanced Management Areas (LEMAs), Kansas Department of Agriculture
- Groundwater Conservation District FAQs, TAGD
- Groundwater Vocabulary, TAGD
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