Who owns ponds in Texas?

In Texas, water rights depend on whether the water is surface water or groundwater. Surface water is publicly owned and governed by the State of Texas. Without a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), landowners may only use surface water for domestic and livestock purposes.



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Texas has more than 800,000 private ponds.

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However, Texas law provides an exemption from the state water permit process for small ponds used for domestic, livestock, wildlife and purposes with less than 200 acre-feet in storage capacity. Diffused surface water is the private property of the landowner. No permit is required to use this water to fill the pond.

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Texas Parks and Wildlife Department does not stock private ponds. Commercial fish farms raise fish for sale to private landowners.

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In Texas, anglers who fish privately owned water bodies are not required to hold a state fishing license. That covers a lot of water - the thousands of stock tanks, farm ponds, subdivision lakes or other impoundments wholly owned by private landowners. No license is required to fish those waters.

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A pond is a body of water less than 0.5 acres (150 square meters) in an area or less than 20 feet (6 meters) in depth. A lake is defined as a body of water bigger than 1 acre (4,000 m²), although size is not a reliable indicator of its water quality.

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