Texas' Water Rights System Gets Tested in Drought
Earlier this month, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a notice to a handful of East Texas groups in the Sabine River Basin: Their rights to river water will be suspended because a hunting and fishing club needs more water. The club's right to water predates the others' rights — literally.
The Sabine River notice is the latest development in what experts say is an unprecedented tug of war between surface water rights holders. Texans with more "senior," or long-standing, water rights can tell the TCEQ that they need more access to water, trumping "junior" rights holders along the ...
Comments (3)
JC DemocratofTejas
And guess who owns the most water rights in Texas. T. Boone Pickens. It takes something like 19,000 gallons of water to pump for a barrel of oil.
1%ers!
Richard S. Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thinking that those with Senior rights will be exercising them before TCEQ attains it's authority. The system has worked well in the past, allowing "Juniors" to have access to water they would not have had with out the two tier system. When there is less to go around, those with Senior rights have every incentive to assure that they maintain control of their rights.
Truque Shugar
Come on JC. Make a decent comment and get your facts straight. T Boone Pickens does not own the majority of water rights. He sold all of them to the city of Amarillo and CRMWD last year. If you want to pick on anyone it should be folks like DK Boyd who owns 130,000+ acres of land in west texas and who plans on putting in a pipeline to serve oil companies who are using millions of gallons of fresh water to FRAC oil and gas wells. Mr. Boyd already supplies incredible amounts of water to the oilfield and plans on pumping and selling as much fresh water as he can. He is also an oilman who owns Boyd Oil Company.