The Senate and House have passed different versions of SB 332 in an attempt to clarify landowners have ownership of groundwater beneath their property and the right to produce it. A struggle for both chambers has been in the ownership provision and clearly defining a landowner’s rights without opening the door to increased litigation.
The Senate passed SB 332 in March as substituted with 28 ayes and 3 nays containing language that establishes landowners have a “vested ownership interest” in groundwater below the surface of their land and thus a right to produce it. Opponents of the vested right language argue the term is too open to interpretation in the courts and could be misapplied, leading to more lawsuits.
On May 3, the House Committee on Natural Resources voted SB 332 with substituted language favorably from committee to the full House. The House version contains language establishing the groundwater below the surface of a landowner’s land is “real property” owned by the landowner, which gives landowners the right to drill for and produce groundwater beneath their land. It is argued by proponents of the House legislation that “real property” is a legally proven, well established term in the court system and as such will not increase litigation.
Both the Senate passed version of SB 332 and the House version voted from committee on May 3 maintain the regulations of groundwater management districts (GMAs) and require that when adopting rules the GMAs consider the vested ownership interest/groundwater ownership and rights of landowners. SB 332 as voted from the House committee May 3 removes the Edwards Aquifer Authority and subsidence districts from the jurisdiction of the bill. The Senate removed the EAA and subsidence districts in a separately passed bill, SB 1625 by Hegar.
