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Topic: Old Texas water laws not included in the modern Water CodeSource: Texas Legislature official websiteCovers: Water use, pollution control, bonds, and water district rulesWho uses it: Researchers, lawyers, and water district officialsCost: Free to read or download online
Texas Auxiliary Water Laws is a free, official collection of older Texas water statutes that were never folded into the modern Texas Water Code. If you work with water districts, research Texas legal history, or practice water law, this resource helps you trace how the rules got made.
The collection covers several key areas: how state water may be used, contracts for pollution control by water power control districts, rules for issuing bonds, and the creation and governance of water control and preservation districts. It also includes lookup tables so you can find a specific district by name and trace it back to the original session law and Vernon's Civil Statutes article number where it was first written into law.
Visit the official Texas Legislature website to read the full text for free. You can also download a PDF copy to keep on hand. Use the built-in tables to look up a water district by name, then find the original session law that created it. From there you can compare those older rules with what the modern Texas Water Code says today.
No fixed date
Not location-specific
This collection works alongside two other major bodies of Texas water law: the Texas Water Code and the Texas Special District Local Laws Code. Together, the three form a full picture of how water is governed across the state. If you are researching a local water district in the Houston area, you may need all three to get the complete story.
Texas water law has deep roots. When the modern Texas Water Code was created, some older general laws stayed separate rather than being repealed or absorbed. This collection preserves those laws exactly as they were passed. That matters if you need to understand how a specific water district was created, how bonds were issued, or how pollution control rules evolved over time.
