Opinion ID: 1625255
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Administrative History and Commentators' Views

Text: The construction given unappropriated water by the Commission in this case and by the court of appeals is also contrary to evidence of agency practice in applying the state's water laws. A.P. Rollins, a member of the Board of Water Engineers, stated it was the Board's practice to value existing recorded permits at full face value to determine whether unappropriated water existed in order to grant a new application. Rollins, The Need for a Water Inventory in Texas, Proceedings of the 1952 & 1954 Water Law Conferences, University of Texas School of Law 67, 68 (1954); Rollins, Policies of the Board of Water Engineers in Passing Upon Applications for Appropriative Rights, Proceedings of the 1952 & 1954 Water Law Conferences, University of Texas School of Law 221, 222-3 (1954). The very first report of the Board of Water Engineers reflected the Board's understanding that under the 1913 Act water granted under a permit was not subject to a new appropriation until the existing permit had been cancelled in whole or in part. The report states: Under the present status, a permit issued by the Board is essentially the concession of a perpetual monopoly. If the population should remain stationary, or human ingenuity should never be able to discover enlarged or more economic uses for water, there would be nothing objectionable in it. But since we do not know that what appears to be economic today will not be viciously wasteful tomorrow under these existing conditions, we believe it should be the policy of the State to grant these concessions for fixed periods only, renewable at the end of the stated periods under such reasonable regulations as experience and the common weal may suggest and demand, and as will not result in the confiscation of created wealth. Booth, Applications for Permits to Appropriate Water, Proceedings of the Water Law Conference, University of Texas School of Law 96, 106 (1959), citing First Report of the Board of Water Engineers 39 (1914). The Commission that issued the present order itself indicated its approval of the use of the full recorded amounts in its new computerized model. Thirty-third Report of the Texas Water Rights Commission 14-15 (1977). Commentators also state that the construction of unappropriated water should be that water granted under an uncancelled permit was not subject to a new permit. Bouldin, The Law of Surface Water Rights in Texas, Proceedings of the 1952 & 1954 Water Law Conferences, University of Texas School of Law 97, 102 (1954). Perhaps nowhere is there a clearer statement of what unappropriated water is, than in a panel discussion that ultimately led to the 1957 amendment allowing the partial cancellation of permits and certified filings for nonuse: Since it is apparent on the face of many of those [old certified filings] that it was beyond fulfillment or hope of fulfillment as far as total use was concerned, it would seem reasonable and desirable that some limitation be fixed or a procedure established by which the unused portion can be returned to the public domain for appropriation to others who will put it to beneficial use. Remarks of R. Richard Roberts, in Panel Discussion on Legislative Problems in the Field of Riparian and Appropriative Rights, Proceedings of the 1952 & 1954 Water Law Conferences, University of Texas School of Law 239, 240 (1954). The language of section 11.025 suggests that its definition of not appropriated water does not apply to section 11.134(b)(2). Section 11.025 refers to the amount granted under a permit or certified filing as the amount specifically appropriated  (emphasis added). It states that the amount of an appropriation that cannot be used beneficially is considered not appropriated, not that it is again subject to appropriation. In intending to make the water available to applicants for a new permit, the legislature, in section 11.030, expressly stated the water is again subject to appropriation. [13] The majority of the court of appeals reasoned, through a series of rhetorical questions, that the term, unappropriated water, included unused waters that were subject to existing permits. The court reasoned that any other construction would mean the Commission and its predecessor agencies had shirked their statutory duty by allowing Texas rivers to become overappropriated. There can be no doubt that the prevention of overappropriation was a principal goal of the legislative scheme. Nineteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Water Engineers 8 (1948-50); Cox, The Texas Board of Water Engineers, 7 Texas L.Rev. 86, 96 (1928). The fact that some rivers are overappropriated does not mean the state's water agencies have failed in their duty. Because of changing circumstances, the vagaries of nature or the possibility of erroneous assumptions about the inflow amounts to the rivers, overappropriation may exist. These circumstances may make any river overappropriated, particularly during a drought period, and thus there can be no substitute for enforcement. The Texas statutes protect senior water rights from actual impairment. No matter how many permits the Commission issues, the action is purely administrative, and it cannot divest or impair prior rights.