March 11, 2013 will be a historical date in Texas water when the case The Aransas Project v. Shaw brought Texas into a new era of water resources.  Federal District Judge Janis Graham Jack held that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) has failed to manage the waters of the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers to protect the endangered whooping crane.  Texas will now take the journey that California has been (unsuccessfully) traveling for decades over its own Bay-Delta.  Texas learned that science, economics and politics governs modern water resource management.  In court, Texas water users mostly “bet the ranch” on legal doctrine.