70-foot waterfall 130-feet underground 0-9 Well cave north of Ozona. ©2023 Erich Ross Schlegel.
The Texas Water Journal has published a new article in Volume 17, a legal review titled “The Texas Supreme Court’s Decision Concerning Ownership of Produced Water in Cactus Water Services LLC v. COG Operating LLC: When Is Water Not Water?,” by Joshua Katz.
As water scarcity intensifies in Texas, the legal status of “produced water”—a byproduct of oil and gas extraction—has gained increasing attention and significance.
A recent decision of the Texas Supreme Court addressed the question: Who owns the produced water? This article analyzes the court’s decision, explores the implications for drafting future oil, gas, and groundwater rights leases, and offers practical guidance on how parties can avoid unintended conveyances of produced water.
Read the full article to learn more.
The journal — an online, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit, the Texas Water Journal, in cooperation with the Texas Water Resources Institute, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife Research that brings together expertise from across the Texas A&M University System, the Bureau of Economic Geology in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Water and the Environment Research Center in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at Texas Tech University — publishes papers as they are completed.
It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
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