Water School

Conserving water can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to positively impact our environment as well as our communities. Water conservation can take a variety of forms and each of them is important in the process of preserving one of the Earth’s most valuable resources.Though water amounts are limited, demand is rising as the world’s population grows. Projections show that by 2060, the Brazos River basin will not have enough water to meet that growing demand. One way we ca...

Rainwater harvesting is both legal and encouraged in the state of Texas. Multiple laws support the collection of rainwater by both private and public entities. For example, Texas Property Code prevents homeowners associations in the state from prohibiting rainwater harvesting systems for personal use. Additionally, Texas requires new state facilities to add rainwater harvesting systems in their designs, according to the Texas Water Development Board.Rain Barrel    Here are so...

Unappropriated water is the state water remaining in a watercourse that is available for appropriation (ie permitting) under the rules of TCEQ.  Or in other words, it is the amount of water that could be available for use from a water source after all existing water rights have been fully taken into account.

Over the past 200 years of Texas history, the state has experienced several different laws governing the use of surface water. These differing laws often created conflict in water rights claims. In 1967, the Texas Legislature directed the predecessor agency of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to clarify this system and classify Texas water rights by Certificates of Adjudication. These certificates were each assigned a priority date based on when the water use first occurred.

A temporary permit is a water permit issued by the State of Texas for a period of up to three years.  These permits are usually used for road construction projects, mining, or agricultural irrigation.

A term permit is a water permit issued by the State of Texas usually to industry, mining or agricultural enterprise for a specific amount of water that will be available for specific amount of time (usually 10 years).  This permit does not have a priority date nor is it considered to be a property right and is subject to non-renewal or cancellation at the end of the term.