[Slip18]

"Unless the plat and original sale deed of the subdivision shows something, it appears that we are being scammed..."

The rancher could have sold the water/mineral rights to someone else. That was done a lot in CA.

[Texan5]

The only thing sold by all the ranchers in a 25 mile long area of riverfront was floodplain to be flooded for this lake when the dam building was proposed in 1911. It was built in 1912, condemning the purchased land by flooding it with water over 200 feet in places. The water in Texas rivers, lakes and all other navigable streams belongs to all the people in Texas, according to state law. There are no minerals, oil or otherwise under that lake, or you can bet the greedy bastards at the water co would be sending divers down to drill it out.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Oldest tale in Texas => The guy who found out he did NOT have to sell the mineral (oil) rights underground in Texas when he sold the "top" of the land to somebody else.

Now, with the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone being so, so politically correct, maybe "water rights" are going to become what oil rights were.