WATER CODE

TITLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

SUBCHAPTER A. PURPOSE AND POLICY


	§ 1.001.  PURPOSE OF CODE.  (a)  This code is enacted as 
a part of the state's continuing statutory revision program, begun 
by the Texas Legislative Council in 1963 as directed by the 
legislature in Chapter 448, Acts of the 58th Legislature, Regular 
Session, 1963 (Article 5429b-1, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).  
The program contemplates a topic-by-topic revision of the state's 
general and permanent statute law without substantive change.
	(b)  Consistent with the objectives of the statutory 
revision program, the purpose of this code is to make the general 
and permanent water law more accessible and understandable, by:
		(1)  rearranging the statutes into a more logical 
order;                    
		(2)  employing a format and numbering system designed 
to facilitate citation of the law and to accommodate future 
expansion of the law;
		(3)  eliminating repealed, duplicative, 
unconstitutional, expired, executed, and other ineffective 
provisions;  and
		(4)  restating the law in modern American English to 
the greatest extent possible.
	(c)  This restatement shall not in any way make any changes 
in the substantive laws of the State of Texas.
	(d)  Laws of a local or special nature, such as statutes 
creating various kinds of conservation and reclamation districts, 
are not included in, or affected by, this code.  The legislature 
believes that persons interested in these local and special laws 
may rely on the session laws and on compilations of these laws.

Acts 1971, 62nd Leg., p. 110, ch. 58, § 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1971.             


	§ 1.002.  CONSTRUCTION OF CODE.  (a)  The Code 
Construction Act (Chapter 311, Government Code) applies to the 
construction of each provision in this code, except as otherwise 
expressly provided by this code.
	(b)  In this code:                                                             
		(1)  a reference to a title, chapter, or section 
without further identification is a reference to a title, chapter, 
or section of this code;  and
		(2)  a reference to a subtitle, subchapter, subsection, 
subdivision, paragraph, or other numbered or lettered unit without 
further identification is a reference to a unit of the next larger 
unit of this code in which the reference appears.
	(c)  A reference in a law to a statute or part of a statute 
revised by this code is considered to be a reference to the part of 
this code that revises that statute or part of the statute.

Acts 1971, 62nd Leg., p. 110, ch. 58, § 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1971.  
Amended by Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 479, § 74, eff. Sept. 1, 
1985;  Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 715, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.


	§ 1.003.  PUBLIC POLICY.  It is the public policy of the 
state to provide for the conservation and development of the 
state's natural resources, including:
		(1)  the control, storage, preservation, and 
distribution of the state's storm and floodwaters and the waters of 
its rivers and streams for irrigation, power, and other useful 
purposes;
		(2)  the reclamation and irrigation of the state's 
arid, semiarid, and other land needing irrigation;
		(3)  the reclamation and drainage of the state's 
overflowed land and other land needing drainage;
		(4)  the conservation and development of its forest, 
water, and hydroelectric power;
		(5)  the navigation of the state's inland and coastal 
waters;  and          
		(6)  the maintenance of a proper ecological environment 
of the bays and estuaries of Texas and the health of related living 
marine resources.

Acts 1971, 62nd Leg., p. 110, ch. 58, § 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1971.  
Amended by Acts 1975, 64th Leg., p. 925, ch. 344, § 1, eff. June 
19, 1975.