Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's water: a look at the journey both Texas and the Middle East must embark upon to solve the kinks in their water regulation.

(29.) See Douglas G. Caroom, Water Law in a Nutshell (Oct. 1997), http://web. archive.org/web/20050924180539/ http://www.bickerstaff.com/articles/waternut.htm (discussing how UWCDs in Texas may be created either by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Committee (TNRCC) or by a special act of the Texas legislature).

(30.) See id.

(31.) See Pitts & Hamilton, supra note 26, at 40.

(32.) Id.

(33.) See Caroom, supra note 29.

(34.) See DeLaughter, supra note 23, at 1477.

(35.) Houston & Tex. Cent. Ry. Co. v. East, 81 S.W. 279, 280 (Tex. 1904). (tracing the history of the law through the English and American courts).

(36.) Sipriano v. Great Spring Waters of Am., 1 S.W.3d 75, 76 (Tex. 1999) (allowing water company to pump average of 90,000 gallons a day without liability for causing neighbor's well to dry).

(37.) Tex. Co. v. Burkett, 296 S.W. 273, 277 (Tex. 1927).

(38.) Caroom, supra note 29.

(39.) Id.

(40.) See DeLaughter, supra note 23, at 1478.

(41.) Caroom, supra note 29.

(42.) See Burkett, 296 S.W. at 277 (explaining the concept of underflow in terms of riparian water).

(43.) See Caroom, supra note 29.

(44.) Denis v. Kickapoo Land Co., 771 S.W.2d 235, 236-37 (Tex. App.--Austin 1989, writ denied) (holding that, absent proof, that the subterranean watercourse possessed all the characteristics of a surface watercourse, a presumption of percolating water stands).

(45.) See TEX. WATER CODE ANN. [subsection] 11.201, 11.202(d)-(e) (Vernon 2000).

(46.) See Caroom, supra note 29.

(47.) See DeLaughter, supra note 23, at 1478.

(48.) Id.

(49.) City of Corpus Christi v. City of Pleasanton, 276 S.W.2d 798, 801 (Tex. 1955) (citations omitted).

(50.) See Opiela, supra note 14, at 101 (stating that "malice intent" is notoriously hard to prove and that it has never come into play in a Texas groundwater case).

(51.) Id. at 102.

(52.) 276 S.W.2d at 800.

(53.) 71 S.W.3d 729, 736 (Tex. 2002) (stating that requiring a permit to prevent waste from Edwards Aquifer served as part of the "broader concept of preventing waste by conserving, protecting, and preserving the aquifer through the Legislature's designed permit program").

(54.) Opiela, supra note 14, at 103-04.

(55.) Friendswood Dev. Co. v. Smith-Southwest Indus., 576 S.W.2d 21, 30 (Tex. 1978).

(56.) Id.

(57.) Id.

(58.) City of Corpus Christi v. City of Pleasanton, 276 S.W.2d 798, 800 (Tex. 1955) (explaining the origins of this rule in common law).

(59.) Id.

(60.) See Sipriano v. Great Spring Waters of Am., 1 S.W.3d 75, 76 (Tex. 1999) (allowing water company to pump average of 90,000 gallons a day without liability for causing neighbors well to dry).

(61.) Opiela, supra note 14, at 88 ("Texans have taken water for granted as a resource ... that, while in reality finite, most thought to be infinitely abundant.").

(62.) Id.

(63.) Id. at 106; see also Friendswood Dev. Co. v. Smith-Southwest Indus., 576 S.W.2d 21, 29 (Tex. 1978) ('The rule has been relied upon by thousands of farmers, industries, and municipalities in purchasing and developing vast tracts of land overlying aquifers of underground water.").

(64.) Opiela, supra note 14, at 106; see also Votteler, supra note 15, at 876.

(65.) Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, Maurice Rimkus: Coming Around on Water Reform, AUSTIN AM.-STATESMAN, Dec. 28, 1997, at A15.

(66.) See Votteler, supra note 15, at 876.

(67.) TEX. Cossw. art. 16, [section] 59(a); Sipriano, 1 S.W.3d at 77.

(68.) 1 S.W.3d 75, 80 (Tex. 1999) ("[W]e cannot say at this time that the Legislature has ignored its constitutional charge to regulate this natural resource.").

(69.) Id. ("Senate Bill 1 also included various provisions calling for more comprehensive and coordinated water planning.").

(70.) 52 S.W.3d 770, 773 (Tex. App.--Amarillo 2001, no pet.).

(71.) Id.

(72.) Id. at 781.

(73.) Id. at 776-77 (citing Acker v. Tex. Water Comm., 790 S.W.2d 299, 301 (Tex. 1990); City of Corpus Christi v. City of Pleasanton, 276 S.W.2d 798 (Tex. 1955); Houston & Tex. Cont. Ry. Co. v. East, 81 S.W. 279, 280 (Tex. 1904)).

(74.) Id. at 777-80 ("[T]he decision of the District on discretion vested 'in a groundwater District by the Legislature to regulate a natural resource' does not support the action of the District.").

(75.) Opiela, supra note 14, at 107 ("Texas courts have made it clear that the legislature is the preferred choice for any modification of the rule of capture. Yet, at the same time they have impeded efforts at legislative change.").

(76.) Paul Simon, In an Empty Cup, A Threat to Peace, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 14, 2001, at A17 ("In other parts of the world, the situation is much more urgent. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East. Even in the unlikely event that the current conflict between Israelis and Arabs is resolved tomorrow, in 10 years or less the area is likely to explode over water--unless regional and long-range planning begins soon.").

(77.) Id.

(78.) Id. ("Middle East leaders understand that they need to agree to regional and long-range planning for conserving and sharing water and for constructing desalination plants. But they must begin soon. A drought is making the water situation worse now, but even if rainfall were normal, water shortages would be growing desperate for most of the Middle East countries.").

(79.) Bulent Topkaya, Water Resources in the Middle East: Forthcoming Problems and Solutions for Sustainable Development of the Region (July 1998), http://www.akdeniz.edu.tr/ muhfak/publications/gap.html ("The greatest single pressure has been caused by the very rapid growth of population.").

(80.) Population Action Int'l, Water and Conflict, in SUSTAINING WATER: POPULATION AND THE FUTURE OF RENEWABLE WATER SUPPLIES (1998), http://web.archive.org/web/19981205100447/ www.cnie.org/pop/ pai/water-25.html (last visited Feb. 4, 2007) [hereinafter Water and Conflict].

(81.) Id.

(82.) Peter W. Zimmerman, Water and Peace in the Middle East (Sept. 7, 1999), http://www.muhajabah.com/docstorage/zimmerman.htm.

(83.) Hilal Elver, Emerging Water Conflict in the Middle East? The Case of the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers Basin, http://www.american.edu/maksoud/water98/ present8.htm (last visited Feb. 4, 2007).

(84.) World Bank Group, From Scarcity to Security: Averting a Water Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/mna/mena.nsf/ All/F2953DFODBl100F685256AFE0072EEE5?OpenDocument (last visited Feb. 4, 2007) [hereinafter From Scarcity to Security].

(85.) Ilan Berman and Paul Michael Whibey, The New Water Politics of the Middle East, STRATEGIC REVIEW, Summer 1999, available at http://www.israeleconomy.org/ strategic/water.htm; see also Elver, supra note 83 ("Despite the size of the Middle East, there are only three rivers that can be classified as large by the world standards: the Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.").

(86.) Berman & Whibey, supra note 85. The eleven countries are Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Id.

(87.) Id. (predicting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Oman and Syria as the next seven countries to be included in the list).

(88.) See Pamela Leroy, Troubled Waters: Population and Water Scarcity, 6 COLO. J. INT'L ENVTL. L. & POLLY 299, 311-12 (1995).

(89.) See Elver, supra note 83.

(90.) See Berman & Whibey, supra note 85.

(91.) See Elver, supra note 83.

(92.) See Berman & Whibey, supra note 85.

(93.) Id. (citing From Scarcity to Security, supra note 84).

(94.) Middle East Wastewater Clearinghouse (MEWUC), Middle East Water Shortage, http://weather.nmsu.edu/hydrology/wastewater/wastewater.htm (last visited Feb. 4, 2007).

(95.) Id.

(96.) John Kolars, Hydro-geographic Background to the Utilization of International Water in the Middle East, 80 AM. SOC'Y/INT'L L. PROC. 250, 250 (1986); Topkaya, supra note 79.

(97.) See Topkaya, supra note 79 (The basic principle being that as available water resources become "less and less, then water for one user means lack of water for the other," which "leads to competition over these resources and in certain cases to conflicts and even to mobilisation [sic] of armed forces.").

(98.) Id.; see also Kolars, supra note 96, at 254.

(99.) Kolars, supra note 96, at 254.

(100.) See Topkaya, supra note 79 ("The location of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers offers little sympathy to national boundaries or strategic political concerns."). (101.) Id.

(102.) Syria, ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (2007), available at http://www.britannica. com/eb/article-29936/Syria.

(103.) See Topkaya, supra note 79.

(104.) Euphrates River, ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (2007), available at http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9363999.

(105.) See Topkaya, supra note 79.

(106.) See Joseph W. Dellapenna, The Two Rivers and the Lands Between: Mesopotamia and the International Law of Transboundary Waters, 10 BYU J. PUB. L. 213, 251 (1996) (citing Protocol on Matters Pertaining to Economic Cooperation, signed July 26, 1987, Syria-Turkey, art. 6 (unpublished)).

(107.) See Berman & Whibey, supra note 85.

(108.) Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), http://www.fas.usda.gov/remote/ mideast_pecad/gap/introduction.htm (last visited Feb. 4, 2007). See generally Berman & Whibey, supra note 85 (detailing briefly the GAP Project and the roles of Turkey and Syria).