Which leaves us asking ourselves if we should sacrifice our environment’s health for the need of society. Since the 1800's Texas has had an ongoing battle over its water rights and it continues to this day. It has been a struggle for lawmakers to enact an efficient and sustainable way to handle the delicate balance between the economics and preservation while handling Texas's water situation. Texas is a very agriculturally induced state. Water and agriculture go hand in hand, thus early agriculture in Texas spawned the formation of Texas's first water laws. When Mexico owned Texas in the early 1800's, water laws granted farmers the right to take water out of streams and rivers and use it for their own personal gain. Mexico's water laws also declared ground water - water in aquifers - property of the landowner. Decades later when The Republic of Texas became its own …show more content…
In more and more cases it is becoming the landowner's neighbors' fault. This is an increasing problem occurring all around the State: Neighbors stealing neighbors' water right from underneath their feet. And according to Texas's water laws, a landowner who has a bigger pump and uses all of his neighbors' water can't be held accountable for his neighbors' loss. This concept goes back to the legal case of Sipriano v. Great Spring Waters of America, when a landowner claimed that his well was going dry because of a rapidly depleting aquifer, caused by the Ozark water bottle company (Trejo). The landowner asked the courts to hold Ozark at liability for the damages to the groundwater. The courts denied his request and defended the legal concept of "rule of capture". Mr. Trejo is a lawyer who specializes in Texas water law, he clarifies that "..landowners are not guaranteed any amount of water.. a landowner has no remedy against anyone if all the water under his property is taken, even from a well that the landowner has invested substantial sums of money in and relied on for his business". In reality the way our laws are set up, no one is guaranteed the safety of their water. It’s a constant worry landowners have to