Sec. 8503.005. LIMITATIONS OF AUTHORITY. (a) The authority may not use for irrigation purposes any water under any permit or permits acquired from any other company or person unless the use is expressly authorized and granted to the authority by the commission or its predecessor agency under authority of law. In considering subsequent applications by the authority, the commission shall at all times consider the needs of the people living within and on lands lying within the watershed of the Colorado River and its tributaries above the authority.
(b) Notwithstanding any rights or permits issued by the commission or its predecessor agency that are held or acquired by the authority, the impounding and use of the floodwaters of the Colorado River or its tributaries for the generation of hydroelectric power by the authority or anyone who may succeed to the rights and privileges conferred on the authority by this chapter are subject to the rights of a person, municipal corporation, or body politic that, under legal grant of authority, is impounding and putting to beneficial use the waters if the person, municipal corporation, or body politic:
(1) has received a permit for the use from the commission, or its predecessor agency; or
(2) is permitted by law to impound water for the purposes described by this subsection.
(c) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require a municipal corporation or body politic to surrender to the authority any rights described by this section to which it may be legally entitled.
(d) This chapter may not be construed to subject to condemnation by the authority or any successor, or by anyone who may succeed to the rights and privileges conferred on the authority by this chapter, any waters:
(1) impounded or to be impounded within or outside the authority under any law authorizing water to be impounded or under any permits granted to a municipal corporation or body politic; or
(2) impounded or permitted to be impounded or used outside the authority under permits legally granted to any person.
(e) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as depriving any person or municipality of the right, legally granted, to impound the waters of the Colorado River or its tributaries for authorized beneficial uses or as repealing any law granting those rights to persons and municipalities.
(f) The rights of the authority to impound or use or sell the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries for the generation of hydroelectric power are subordinate and inferior to the rights of:
(1) municipalities situated within the boundaries of the authority to build dams and impound floodwaters solely for municipal purposes;
(2) municipalities and bodies politic within the watershed of the Colorado River outside the authority to build dams or impound floodwaters for municipal purposes; and
(3) bodies politic within the watershed of the Colorado River to build dams and impound the floodwaters within the watershed of the Colorado River and its tributaries for domestic purposes inside and outside the boundaries of the authority.
(g) The title to any rights, properties, licenses, franchises, or permits acquired by the authority shall be subject to the limitations imposed by Subsection (f).
Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 996, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Renumbered from Water Code, Section 222.005 by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 921 (H.B. 3167), Sec. 13.006(b), eff. September 1, 2007.
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