Section 295.158 - Notice of Amendments to Water Rights(a) On motion of executive director. (1) If the executive director determines to file a petition to amend a water right, notice of the determination stating the grounds therefore and a copy of a proposed amendment draft shall be personally served on or mailed by certified mail to the water right holder at the last address of record with the commission.(2) This notice shall be given at least 15 days before a petition is filed with the commission.(b) Requiring mailed and published notice. Unless authorized by subsection (c) of this section, applications for amendments to permits, certified filings, or certificates of adjudication, including, but not limited to, those of the following nature, must comply with requirements for a water use permit, including the notice requirements in the Texas Water Code, § 11.132, and this subchapter: (1) to change the place of use when other water users of state water may be affected;(2) to increase an appropriation and/or rate or period of diversion;(3) to change the purpose of use when the change would authorize a greater consumption of state water or would materially alter the period of time when state water could be diverted;(4) to add points of diversion which would result in a greater rate of diversion or impair other water rights;(5) to remove or modify the requirements or conditions of a water right which were included for the protection of other water rights;(6) to change a point of diversion which may impair other water rights;(7) to relocate or enlarge a reservoir;(8) to extend the period of duration of any term permit;(9) to remove the authorization for storage in a reservoir that has not been constructed if the application requests an increase in the amount of water to be diverted or the diversion rate based on an evaporation credit; or(10) to change the use or purpose of use of a water right authorizing storage in an on-channel storage reservoir that has lost storage because of sedimentation from storage by diversion to storage as part of an aquifer storage and recovery project for later retrieval and use as authorized by the original water right.(c) Not requiring mailed and published notice.(1) Only an application to amend an existing permit, certified filing, or certificate of adjudication which does not contemplate an additional consumptive use of state water or an increased rate or period of diversion and which, in the judgment of the commission, has no potential for harming any other existing water right, is subject to amendment by the commission without notice other than that provided to the record holder. Once the technical review of an application is complete and the technical memoranda have been filed with the chief clerk of the commission, the commission shall consider whether additional notice is required based on the particular facts of the application.(2) Applications for the following do not require notice, except to the record holder, and do not require technical review: (A) to add a purpose of use that does not substantially alter:(i) the nature of the water right from a water right authorizing only non-consumptive use to a water right authorizing consumptive use; or(ii) a pattern of use that is explicitly authorized by or required by the original water right;(B) to add a place of use located in the same river basin as the place of use authorized in the original water right;(C) to change the point of diversion provided that:(i) the authorized rate of diversion is not increased;(ii) the original point of diversion and the new point of diversion are located on the same contiguous tract of land;(iii) there are no other water right holders with points of diversion located on the same watercourse between the original point of diversion and the new point of diversion;(iv) there are no streamflow gages located on the watercourse between the original point of diversion and the new point of diversion that are referenced in the original water right or in another water right authorizing a diversion from the same watercourse; and(v) there are no tributary watercourses that enter the watercourse that is the source of supply located between the original point of diversion and the new point of diversion.(3) Applications of the following descriptions may not require additional notice: (A) to cure ambiguities or ineffective provisions in a water right;(B) to reduce an appropriation or rate of diversion;(C) to change the point of diversion, except for applications under paragraph (2)(C) of this subsection, when the existing rate of diversion will not be increased and there are no interjacent water right holders of record between the originally authorized point of diversion and the new one, or when interjacent water users agree in writing to the amendment. If written agreements are not obtained, interjacent water right holders will be notified of the proposed change by certified mail and given two weeks within which to protest. If no protest is received, further notice will not be required;(D) to add additional points of diversion, except for applications under paragraph (2)(C) of this subsection, where the existing rate of diversion will not be increased and there are no water right holders of record between any originally authorized point of diversion and the new one to be added, or when interjacent water right holders agree in writing to the amendment. If written agreements are not obtained, interjacent water users will be notified of the proposed change by certified mail and given two weeks within which to protest. If no protest is received, further notice will not be required;(E) to increase the rate or period for diversion from a storage reservoir; and(F) to remove the authorization for storage in a reservoir that has not been constructed, if the water diverted under the right will be stored in an aquifer storage and recovery project for later retrieval and use as authorized by the original water right, provided that: (i) the application does not request an increase in the diversion amount or rate; and(ii) the executive director determines after an administrative review that the application will not cause a negative impact on other water rights or the environment that is greater than the effect the original permit would have had were the permit rights exercised to the full extent of the original permit.30 Tex. Admin. Code § 295.158
The provisions of this §295.158 adopted to be effective May 28, 1986, 11 TexReg 2326; amended to be effective May 20, 1997, 22 TexReg 4250; amended to be effective December 31, 2009, 34 TexReg 9454; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 45, Number 21, May 22, 2020, TexReg 3448, eff. 5/28/2020