Extended Learning Session: So Secret, Occult, and Concealed: The Story of Groundwater in Texas
Extended Learning Session: So Secret, Occult, and Concealed: The Story of Groundwater in Texas
Presented on Tuesday, March 17, 2015
The foundation of water law and management in Texas extends to a court decision more than 100 years ago. This court decision—the East case—put into place the Rule of Capture and continues to influence subsequent law and management of groundwater in Texas with recent legal cases and statute building upon this foundation. Nevertheless, the Texas Legislature has amended the Rule of Capture by allowing the creation of locally controlled groundwater conservation districts, the creation of which has caused tensions between property rights and management. This lecture will relive the key legal cases and statute through the eyes of a hydrogeologist and show how the story of groundwater management in Texas has yet to be completely written.
Presenter:
Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., PG
Water Science and Conservation, Texas Water Development Board, Austin, TX
Water Science and Conservation, Texas Water Development Board, Austin, TX
Robert E. Mace joined the Texas Water Development Board in 1999 to manage the Groundwater Availability Modeling Program. Over the next nine years, he rose from a unit leader to director for the Groundwater Resources Division to assuming his present role in 2009 as a Deputy Executive Administrator to lead the Water Science & Conservation program area for the agency. Prior to Texas Water Development Board, Dr. Mace worked eight years at the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin as a hydrologist and research scientist.