Water School

Water rights or a water permit is granted by the state in set increments to ensure that water is available for all in need.There are several types of water rights in Texas: perpetual rights including permits and certificates of adjudication and limited rights including temporary and term permits.

Interruptible water is water available for contract sale for a specific period, normally a year-to-year basis.  This water is available based on the amount of water in reservoir storage.  Interruptible water is subject to restricted use during water shortages.

The Brazos River  Authority is permitted to sell water to any organization within the basin for the purposes listed in the organizations' water permit from the state.  These purposes are: municipal, industrial, agricultural, and mining.  Outside the Brazos River basin, legislation must be passed to allow an interbasin transfer of water to another river basin.

The Brazos River Authority has obtained the right to provide up to 705,000 acre-feet of water basin-wide from the 11 system reservoirs and the rivers within the watershed. This right was obtained through a standard water permitting process set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and its predecessor agencies and through contractual negotiations.  The Authority has contracted for sale 700,000 acre-feet of water.

Also called a public water system, a municipal water system is an organization that provides drinking water to at least five service connections or regularly serves 25 individuals for 60 days.

The category of mining water use refers to water used in the process of quarrying rocks and extracting minerals from the land.