§ 113.007.No New or Additional Water Rights

Water rights in Texas are allocated by a system this chapter does not touch, and this section says so.

No user gains any new or additional right to water because of this chapter.

No user gains any new or additional priority either. Priority decides who is served first when there is not enough water, which is the question that matters in a drought.

The chapter also confers nothing inconsistent with the contract in dispute. A purchaser’s rights come from the agreement, and a lawsuit does not enlarge them.

The concern behind the section is real. A statute letting a generator sue a district over undelivered water could be read as promising the water itself, ahead of other users.

What the chapter gives is a forum, not a supply. A purchaser who proves a breach recovers a contract remedy under Section 113.003, and no more water than the contract promised.

Section 113.008 completes the thought by protecting the regulators who decide how water is allocated.

Texas allocates surface water through a state permitting system, and the priority among users comes from that system rather than from private agreements.

A contract remedy cannot reorder it. A purchaser who recovers the cost of cover is compensated in money, which leaves the allocation of the water itself exactly where the permits left it.