(a) Nothing in this chapter affects the right of any private corporation, individual, or political subdivision that has a justiciable interest in pursuing any available common-law remedy to enforce a right or to prevent or seek redress or compensation for the violation of a right or otherwise redress an injury.
(b) A district court may award the costs of litigation, including reasonable attorney fees and expert costs, to any political subdivision of the state, private corporation, or individual that is a water right holder and that prevails in a suit for injunctive relief to redress an unauthorized diversion, impoundment, or use of surface water in violation of this chapter or a rule adopted pursuant to this chapter.

Terms Used In Texas Water Code 11.0841

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Rule: includes regulation. See Texas Government Code 311.005

(c) For purposes of this section, the Parks and Wildlife Department has:
(1) the rights of a holder of a water right that is held in the Texas Water Trust, including the right to file suit in a civil court to prevent the unlawful use of such a right;
(2) the right to act in the same manner that a holder of a water right may act to protect the holder’s rights in seeking to prevent any person from appropriating water in violation of a set-aside established by the commission under § 11.1471 to meet instream flow needs or freshwater inflow needs; and
(3) the right to file suit in a civil court to prevent the unlawful use of a set-aside established under § 11.1471.