The TWDB is the lead state agency for coordinating the regional water planning process and developing a comprehensive state water plan. Id.The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) provides water planning, data collection and dissemination, financial assistance and technical assistance. See TWDB website, http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/about/aboutTWDBmain.asp. TWDB supports regions in developing their regional water plans that will be incorporated into a statewide water plan. Among other duties, it also maintains a centralized data bank of information on the state's natural resources called the Texas Natural Resources Information System and manages the Strategic Mapping Program, a Texas-based, public and private sector cost-sharing program to develop consistent, large-scale computerized base maps describing basic geographic features of Texas.

In 2002, Texas adopted comprehensive water legislation, Senate Bill 1 (SB 1). Under this legislation, individuals representing 11 interest groups are to serve as members of Regional Water Planning Groups (RWPG) to prepare regional water plans for their respective areas. These plans will map out how to conserve water supplies, meet future water supply needs and respond to future droughts in the planning areas. TWDB financial assistance for water supply projects may be provided only to projects that meet identified needs in a manner that is consistent with the approved regional water plans. In addition, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission may not issue a water right permit for municipal purposes unless it is consistent with an approved regional water plan after January 5, 2002. See the Texas Water Development Board Website, S.B.1 Water Planning, http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/RWPG/what-is-rwp.asp.

Texas Water Code ?35.001 allows for the creation of groundwater management areas and groundwater conservation districts in order to provide for the conservation, preservation, protection, recharging, and prevention of waste of the groundwater, and to control subsidence caused by withdrawal. Texas Water Code ??35.001, 36.0015. See Texas Legislature Online, http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/LG/content/htm/lg.012.00.000395.00.htm#395.001.00 (visited 7/24/07), and Texas Water Development Board website, Groundwater Management Areas, http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/GwRD/GMA/gmahome.htm. A district may make and enforce rules, including rules limiting groundwater production based on tract size or the spacing of wells, to provide for conserving, preserving, protecting, and recharging of the groundwater or of a groundwater reservoir or its subdivisions in order to control subsidence, prevent degradation of water quality, or prevent waste of groundwater. Texas Water Code ?36.101. The districts are required to develop a comprehensive management plan and adopt rules necessary to implement the management plan. Texas Water Code ? 36.1071. House Bill 1763 passed in 2005 requires groundwater conservation districts located within common groundwater management areas to jointly determine the desired future conditions and to assure that their individual district management plans meet those goals. See H.B. 1763 at Texas Legislature Online, http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=79R&Bill=HB1763, and Texas Water Code ?36.108. See also, Robert Mace, et al., A Streetcar Named Desired Future Conditions: The New Groundwater Availability for Texas, presented at the 7th Annual The Changing Face of Water Rights in Texas, May 18-18, 2006, available at the Texas Water Development Board Website, http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/GwRD/pdfdocs/03-1_mace.pdf.