New publication: Survey of Legal Mechanisms Relating to Groundwater along the Texas-Mexico Border, by ’16 TAMU Law graduate Jessica Foster, 2018

This report was sponsored by the following institutions: Program in Natural Resources Systems, Texas A&M University School of Law; Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy, Texas A&M University Bush School of Government and Public Service; and Texas Water Resources Institute. Its purpose is to present a factual picture of the multiple groundwater governance frameworks that cover the same transboundary aquifers on the Texas-Mexico border.  The report examines, catalogs, and compares the various approaches that communities along the Texas–Mexico border take toward managing and allocating groundwater resources.  It also presents a comprehensive survey of the existing rules, regulations, practices, and guidelines – from the federal, to the state, to the local level – that users and institutions on both sides employ to govern groundwater usage within their various jurisdictions.  The goal of this study is to lay a foundation for additional research and even coordination across the frontier in an effort both to improve knowledge and information about groundwater on the Texas-Mexico border, as well as to ensure that these critical resources are governed and managed in a manner that ensures their availability into the future. The report may be downloaded from http://www.law.tamu.edu/docs/default-source/faculty-documents/texas-mexico-ground-water.pdf?sfvrsn=2