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Guide to the Texas v. Hidalgo County Water Control Case Files, 1963-1966
Historical BackgroundState of Texas v. Hidalgo County Water Control & Improvement District No. 18 et al. (443 S.W.2d 728, Court of Civil Appeals--Corpus Christi 1969) was originally filed in the 93rd District Court, Hidalgo County (Case no. B-20,576) in 1956 by the Texas Attorney General on behalf of the state's Board of Water Engineers and several cities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to stop 40 water districts and 650 private corporations and individuals from diverting water from the lower Rio Grande River to ensure sufficient water supply for domestic use. Lengthy and complex litigation ensued. In a split-off case, Valmont Plantations v. State (355 S.W. 2d 502 (1962)), the Texas Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling that landowners along the Rio Grande did not have riparian water rights under the applicable Spanish and Mexican laws. As a result, the main case finally came to trial before Judge J. H. Starley in 1963, who ruled in 1966 that the river waters would be divided according to a set of weighted priorities. The Texas Supreme Court substantially upheld Starley's rulings in 1970, and shortly thereafter the Water Rights Adjudication Act gave a state watermaster the power to supervise water distribution. Return to the Table of Contents Contents of the CollectionVolumes I-IV are indexes to 54 volumes of "Statement of Facts" which include oral testimony and exhibits for the district court phase of the litigation. Volumes 1-2, 4-5, and 50-51 of the "Statement of Facts" are lacking. Return to the Table of Contents RestrictionsAccess RestrictionsNone. Use RestrictionsThe collection and any reproductions of the collection are made available for the purposes of private study, scholarship, and research only. Tarlton Law Library does not hold the copyright to the materials, unless it has been transferred to the library by the creator. It is the researcher's responsibility to determine the copyright status and to obtain permission from the copyright holder before publishing any materials from the collection. Some collections may contain sensitive or confidential information protected under federal and state privacy laws. The researchers are encouraged to report any such information to staff. The University of Texas at Austin is not responsible for violations of intellectual property rights and any other laws or for liability to any person for defamation or invasion of privacy that result from unauthorized use of the collection by the researcher. Return to the Table of Contents Administrative InformationPreferred CitationTexas v. Hidalgo County Water Control Case Files, Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin. Acquisition InformationInformation of acquisition method not available. Processing InformationProcessing information not available. Return to the Table of Contents Detailed Description of the Collection
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