Title WA, Water Code

Sec. 11.033. EMINENT DOMAIN. The right to take water necessary for domestic and municipal supply purposes is primary and fundamental, and the right to recover from other uses water which is essential to domestic and municipal supply purposes is paramount and unquestioned in the p…

Sec. 11.034. RESERVOIR SITE: LAND AND RIGHTS-OF-WAY. An appropriator who is authorized to construct a dam or reservoir is granted the right-of-way, not to exceed 100 feet wide, and the necessary area for the site, over any public school land, university land, or asylum land of th…

Sec. 11.035. CONDEMNATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. (a) An appropriator may obtain rights-of-way over private land and may obtain the land necessary for pumping plants, intakes, headgates, and storage reservoirs by condemnation. (b) The party obtaining private property by condemnation…

Sec. 11.036. CONSERVED OR STORED WATER: SUPPLY CONTRACT. (a) A person, association of persons, corporation, or water improvement or irrigation district having in possession and control any storm water, floodwater, or rainwater that is conserved or stored as authorized by this cha…

Sec. 11.037. WATER SUPPLIERS: RULES AND REGULATIONS. (a) Every person, association of persons, corporation, or irrigation district conserving or supplying water for any of the purposes authorized by this chapter shall make and publish reasonable rules and regulations relating to:…

Sec. 11.038. RIGHTS OF OWNERS OF LAND ADJOINING CANAL, ETC. (a) A person who owns or holds a possessory interest in land adjoining or contiguous to a canal, ditch, flume, lateral, dam, reservoir, or lake constructed and maintained under the provisions of this chapter and who has …

Sec. 11.039. DISTRIBUTION OF WATER DURING SHORTAGE. (a) If a shortage of water in a water supply not covered by a water conservation plan prepared in compliance with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or Texas Water Development Board rules results from drought, accident, o…

Sec. 11.040. PERMANENT WATER RIGHT. (a) A permanent water right is an easement and passes with the title to land. (b) A written instrument conveying a permanent water right may be recorded in the same manner as any other instrument relating to a conveyance of land. (c) The owner …

Sec. 11.041. DENIAL OF WATER: COMPLAINT. (a) Any person entitled to receive or use water from any canal, ditch, flume, lateral, dam, reservoir, or lake or from any conserved or stored supply may present to the commission a written petition showing: (1) that he is entitled to rece…

Sec. 11.042. DELIVERING WATER DOWN BANKS AND BEDS. (a) Under rules prescribed by the commission, a person, association of persons, corporation, water control and improvement district, water improvement district, or irrigation district supplying stored or conserved water under con…

Sec. 11.043. RECORDATION OF CONVEYANCE OF IRRIGATION WORK. (a) A conveyance of a ditch, canal, or reservoir or other irrigation work or an interest in such an irrigation work must be executed and acknowledged in the same manner as a conveyance of real estate. Such a conveyance mu…

Sec. 11.044. ROADS AND HIGHWAYS. (a) An appropriator has the right to construct ditches, canals, or pipelines along or across all roads and highways necessary for the construction of waterworks. Bridges, culverts, or siphons shall be constructed at all road and highway crossings …

Sec. 11.045. DITCHES AND CANALS. An appropriator is entitled to construct ditches and canals along or across any stream of water. Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2207, ch. 870, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977.

Sec. 11.046. RETURN SURPLUS WATER. (a) A person who takes or diverts water from a watercourse or stream for the purposes authorized by this code shall conduct surplus water back to the watercourse or stream from which it was taken if the water can be returned by gravity flow and …

Sec. 11.047. FAILURE TO FENCE. If a person, association of persons, corporation, or water improvement or irrigation district that owns or controls a ditch, canal, reservoir, dam, or lake does not keep it securely fenced, there is no cause of action against the owner of livestock …

Sec. 11.048. COST OF MAINTAINING IRRIGATION DITCH. (a) If an irrigation ditch is owned or used by two or more persons, mutual or cooperative companies, or corporations, each party who has an interest in the ditch shall pay his proportionate share of the cost of operating and main…

Sec. 11.049. EXAMINATION AND SURVEY. A person may make any necessary examination and survey in order to select the most advantageous sites for a reservoir and rights-of-way to be used for any of the purposes authorized by this chapter, and for this purpose a person may enter the …

Sec. 11.050. TIDEWATER GATES, ETC. (a) An appropriator authorized to take water for irrigation, subject to the laws of the United States and the regulations made under its authority, may construct gates or breakwaters, dams, or dikes with gates, in waters wholly in this state, as…

Sec. 11.051. IRRIGATION: LIEN ON CROPS. (a) A person who constructs a ditch, canal, dam, lake, or reservoir for the purpose of irrigation and who leases, rents, furnishes, or supplies water to any person for irrigation, with or without a contract, has a preference lien superior t…

Sec. 11.052. ACTIVITIES UNDER THE FEDERAL RECLAMATION ACT. The Secretary of the Interior of the United States is authorized to conduct any activities in this state necessary to perform his duties under the federal reclamation act, as amended (43 U.S.C. Section 371 et seq.). Amend…

Sec. 11.053. EMERGENCY ORDER CONCERNING WATER RIGHTS. (a) During a period of drought or other emergency shortage of water, as defined by commission rule, the executive director by order may, in accordance with the priority of water rights established by Section 11.027: (1) tempor…

Sec. 11.081. UNLAWFUL USE OF STATE WATER. No person may wilfully take, divert, or appropriate any state water for any purpose without first complying with all applicable requirements of this chapter. Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2207, ch. 870, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977; A…

Sec. 11.082. UNLAWFUL USE: CIVIL PENALTY. (a) A person who wilfully takes, diverts, or appropriates state water without complying with the applicable requirements of this chapter is also liable to a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 for each day he continues the taking, diver…

Sec. 11.083. OTHER UNLAWFUL TAKING. (a) No person may wilfully open, close, change, or interfere with any headgate or water box without lawful authority. (b) No person may wilfully use water or conduct water through his ditch or upon his land unless he is entitled to do so. Amend…

Sec. 11.084. SALE OF PERMANENT WATER RIGHT WITHOUT A PERMIT. No person may sell or offer to sell a permanent water right unless he has perfected a right to appropriate state water by a certified filing, or unless he has obtained a permit from the commission, authorizing the use o…

Sec. 11.0841. CIVIL REMEDY. (a) Nothing in this chapter affects the right of any private corporation, individual, or political subdivision that has a justiciable interest in pursuing any available common-law remedy to enforce a right or to prevent or seek redress or compensation …

Sec. 11.0842. ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTY. (a) If a person violates this chapter, a rule or order adopted under this chapter or Section 16.236, or a permit, certified filing, or certificate of adjudication issued under this chapter, the commission may assess an administrative penalty …

Sec. 11.0843. FIELD CITATION. (a) Upon witnessing a violation of this chapter or a rule or order or a water right issued under this chapter, the executive director or a person designated by the executive director, including a watermaster or the watermaster's deputy, may issue the…

Sec. 11.085. INTERBASIN TRANSFERS. (a) No person may take or divert any state water from a river basin in this state and transfer such water to any other river basin without first applying for and receiving a water right or an amendment to a permit, certified filing, or certifica…

Sec. 11.086. OVERFLOW CAUSED BY DIVERSION OF WATER. (a) No person may divert or impound the natural flow of surface waters in this state, or permit a diversion or impounding by him to continue, in a manner that damages the property of another by the overflow of the water diverted…

Sec. 11.087. DIVERSION OF WATER ON INTERNATIONAL STREAM. (a) When storm water or floodwater is released from a dam or reservoir on an international stream and the water is designated for use or storage downstream by a specified user who is legally entitled to receive it, no other…

Sec. 11.0871. TEMPORARY DIVERSION OF WATER ON INTERNATIONAL STREAM. (a) The commission may authorize, under conditions stated in an order, a watermaster to provide for the temporary diversion and use by holders of water rights of storm water or floodwater that spills from dams an…

Sec. 11.088. DESTRUCTION OF WATERWORKS. No person may wilfully cut, dig, break down, destroy, or injure or open a gate, bank, embankment, or side of any ditch, canal, reservoir, flume, tunnel or feeder, pump or machinery, building, structure, or other work which is the property o…

Sec. 11.089. JOHNSON GRASS OR RUSSIAN THISTLE. (a) No person who owns, leases, or operates a ditch, canal, or reservoir or who cultivates land abutting a reservoir, ditch, flume, canal, wasteway, or lateral may permit Johnson grass or Russian thistle to go to seed on the waterway…

Sec. 11.090. POLLUTING AND LITTERING. No person may deposit in any canal, lateral, reservoir, or lake, used for a purpose named in this chapter, the carcass of any dead animal, tin cans, discarded buckets or pails, garbage, ashes, bailing or barbed wire, earth, offal, or refuse o…

Sec. 11.091. INTERFERENCE WITH DELIVERY OF WATER UNDER CONTRACT. No person may wilfully take, divert, appropriate, or interfere with the delivery of conserved or stored water under Section 11.042 of this code. Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2207, ch. 870, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. …

Sec. 11.092. WASTEFUL USE OF WATER. A person who owns or has a possessory right to land contiguous to a canal or irrigation system and who acquires the right by contract to use the water from it commits waste if he: (1) permits the excessive or wasteful use of water by any of his…

Sec. 11.093. ABATEMENT OF WASTE AS PUBLIC NUISANCE. (a) A person who permits an unreasonable loss of water through faulty design or negligent operation of any waterworks using water for a purpose named in this chapter commits waste, and the commission may declare the works causin…

Sec. 11.094. PENALTY FOR USE OF WORKS DECLARED PUBLIC NUISANCE. No person may operate or attempt to operate any waterworks or irrigation system or use any water under contract with any waterworks or irrigation system that has been previously declared to be a public nuisance. Amen…

Sec. 11.096. OBSTRUCTION OF NAVIGABLE STREAMS. No person may obstruct the navigation of any stream which can be navigated by steamboats, keelboats, or flatboats by cutting and felling trees or by building on or across the stream any dike, milldam, bridge, or other obstruction. Am…

Sec. 11.097. REMOVAL OF OBSTRUCTIONS FROM NAVIGABLE STREAMS. (a) On its own motion or on written request from a commissioners court, the commission shall investigate a reported natural obstruction in a navigable stream caused by the accumulation of limbs, logs, leaves, other tree…

Sec. 11.121. PERMIT REQUIRED. Except as provided in Sections 11.1405, 11.142, 11.1421, 11.1422, and 18.003, no person may appropriate any state water or begin construction of any work designed for the storage, taking, or diversion of water without first obtaining a permit from th…

Sec. 11.122. AMENDMENTS TO WATER RIGHTS REQUIRED. (a) All holders of permits, certified filings, and certificates of adjudication issued under Section 11.323 of this code shall obtain from the commission authority to change the place of use, purpose of use, point of diversion, ra…

Sec. 11.123. PERMIT PREFERENCES. The commission shall give preference to applications in the order declared in Section 11.024 of this code and to applications which will effectuate the maximum utilization of water and are calculated to prevent the escape of water without contribu…

Sec. 11.124. APPLICATION FOR PERMIT. (a) An application to appropriate unappropriated state water must: (1) be in writing and sworn to; (2) contain the name and post-office address of the applicant; (3) identify the source of water supply; (4) state the nature and purposes of the…

Sec. 11.125. MAP OR PLAT. (a) The application must be accompanied by a map or plat in the form and containing the information prescribed by the commission. (b) Repealed by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1097 (H.B. 3735), Sec. 7, eff. September 1, 2017. (c) Repealed by Acts 2017,…