Sec. 8834.001. DEFINITIONS

In this chapter:

(1) "Beneficial use" means any use that is useful or beneficial to the user, including:

(A) an agricultural, gardening, domestic, stock raising, municipal, mining, manufacturing, industrial, commercial, or recreational use, or a use for pleasure purposes; or

(B) exploring for, producing, handling, or treating oil, gas, sulfur, or other minerals.

(2) "Board" means the district's board of directors.

(3) "Commission" means the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

(4) "District" means the Fort Bend Subsidence District.

(5) "Groundwater" means water existing below the earth's surface in the district. The term does not include water produced with oil in the production of oil and gas.

(6) "Subsidence" means the lowering in elevation of the surface of land by groundwater withdrawal.

(7) "Waste" means:

(A) groundwater withdrawal from a groundwater reservoir at a rate and in an amount that causes or threatens to cause intrusion into the reservoir of water unsuitable for agricultural, gardening, domestic, or stock raising purposes;

(B) groundwater withdrawal from a groundwater reservoir through a well if the water withdrawn is not used for a beneficial use or if the amount used is more than is reasonably required for a beneficial use;

(C) escape of groundwater from a groundwater reservoir to any other reservoir or geologic strata that does not contain groundwater;

(D) pollution or harmful alteration of groundwater in a groundwater reservoir by saltwater or other harmful matter admitted from another stratum or from the surface of the ground;

(E) unless the discharge is authorized by a permit, rule, or order issued by the commission under Chapter 26, Water Code, wilfully or negligently causing, suffering, or allowing groundwater to escape or flow:

(i) into a river, creek, natural watercourse, depression, lake, reservoir, drain, sewer, street, highway, road, or road ditch; or

(ii) onto land that does not belong to the owner of the well;

(F) unless the occupant of the land receiving the discharge granted permission for the discharge, the escape of groundwater pumped for irrigation as irrigation tailwater onto land that does not belong to the owner of the well; or

(G) wilfully causing or knowingly permitting the water withdrawn from an artesian well to run off the owner's land or to percolate through the stratum above which the water is found, as prescribed by Section 11.205, Water Code.

(8) "Well" means a facility, device, or method used to withdraw groundwater.

(9) "Withdrawal" means the act of extracting by pumping or another method.

Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1139 , Sec. 1.05, eff. April 1, 2011.