Texas Administrative Code › Title 30 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Part 1 - TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Chapter 297 - WATER RIGHTS, SUBSTANTIVE › Subchapter C - USE EXEMPT FROM PERMITTING › Section 297.21 - Domestic and Livestock and Wildlife Permit Exemptions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) In accordance with Texas Water Code
				  (TWC), §11.303(l), a person may directly divert and use water from a
				  stream or watercourse for domestic and livestock purposes on land owned by the
				  person and that is adjacent to the stream without obtaining a permit. Manner of
				  diversion may be by pumping or by gravity flow. Such riparian domestic and
				  livestock use is a vested right that predates the prior appropriation system in
				  Texas and is superior to appropriative rights. A vested riparian right is only
				  to the normal flow in the stream, not to the storm water, floodwater, or
				  authorized releases from storage for downstream use.
(b) In accordance with TWC, §11.142, a
				  person may construct on the person's own property a dam or reservoir with a
				  normal storage of not more than 200 acre-feet of state water for domestic and
				  livestock purposes without obtaining a permit. The reservoir may be on-channel,
				  adjacent to the stream, or on a contiguous piece of property through which
				  flows the stream from which the water is diverted. For purposes of this
				  subsection, normal storage means the conservation storage of the reservoir,
				  i.e., the amount of water the reservoir may hold before water is released
				  uncontrolled through a spillway or into a standpipe. A person who temporarily
				  stores more than 200 acre-feet of water in a dam or reservoir having a normal
				  storage of greater than 200 acre-feet is not required to obtain a permit for
				  the dam or reservoir if the person can demonstrate through reservoir capacity
				  data and monthly reservoir water level records maintained by the owner that the
				  person has not stored in the dam or reservoir more than 200 acre-feet of state
				  water on average in any 12-month cycle. Selection of the 12-month cycle shall
				  be at the owner's discretion, but must be consistent from year to year. This
				  exemption does not apply to a commercial operation. Use of land for livestock
				  purposes is not a commercial operation. This domestic and livestock exemption
				  is not available to owners or property sold by a municipality having a
				  population of 250,000 or less and owning land within 5,000 feet of where the
				  shoreline of a lake would be if the lake were filled to its storage capacity,
				  if the property was sold without notice or the solicitation of bids to the
				  person leasing the land, in accordance with Local Government Code, §
										272.001(h).
(c) A dam constructed in accordance with
				  subsection (b) of this section may not be located on a navigable
				  stream.
(d) The use of a reservoir
				  by free-ranging wild game and fur-bearing animals that may be harvested by
				  hunters and trappers who pay a fee or other compensation to hunt or trap on the
				  property does not constitute a use for which a permit must be obtained for an
				  otherwise exempt domestic and livestock reservoir. Additionally, the use of
				  water that is used in making products from a family garden or orchard that are
				  traded with a neighbor or used in a local bake sale or potluck dinner does not
				  constitute a use for which a permit must be obtained for an otherwise exempt
				  domestic and livestock reservoir.
(e) In accordance with TWC, §11.142(b),
				  a person may construct on the person's property a dam or reservoir with normal
				  storage of not more than 200 acre-feet of water for wildlife management as
				  defined in Texas Tax Code (TTC), §23.51(7), and for fish management
				  purposes, excluding aquaculture or fish farming purposes, if the property on
				  which the dam or reservoir will be constructed is qualified open-space land, as
				  defined by TTC, §23.51. For purposes of this subsection, normal storage
				  means the conservation storage of the reservoir, i.e., the amount of water the
				  reservoir may hold before water is released uncontrolled through a spillway or
				  into a standpipe. This exemption does not apply to a commercial operation. For
				  the purposes of this subsection, commercial operation means the use of land for
				  industrial facilities, industrial parks, aquaculture facilities, fish farming
				  facilities, or housing developments. The incidental use of the reservoir in a
				  manner that does not remove the land from the definition of qualified
				  open-space land as defined by TTC, §23.51, including using a photograph in
				  advertising, does not constitute a use for which a permit must be obtained for
				  an otherwise exempt reservoir.