**This article is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.**

Things have been busy around here!  Last Friday, I headed to Fredericksburg to speak at the New Land Owner Series put on by the Gillespie County Extension Office.  There was a great turn out and the participants asked wonderful questions.  Welcome to those of you who are new to the blog from that presentation.  Yesterday, I presented at a webinar along with Texas A&M alum and New York City attorney Cari Ricker discussing agricultural leases.  There were over 60 attorneys from across the United States and Canada who participated, so welcome to those of you who found the blog from that presentation!

Here are a few agricultural law stories in the news this week.

*  Report on Water Stress and Fracking.  Recently, a non-profit group published a study looking at fracking and water stress in Texas.  The report specifically discussed water use in oil and gas production in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin.  The report looked at the number of wells and amount of water used in fracking each well, as well as discussed the concern that subsurface injection wells (in which the used frack water is disposed) is a consumptive use, removing the water from the hydrologic cycle.  [Read article here.]

*Article on Water Recycling in Oil and Gas Production.  Texas attorney Aimee Hess published an interesting blog post this week discussing the increasing use of water recycling in oil and gas production.  [Read post here.]

*New Mexico Attorney General Takes Aim at U.S. Siding with Texas.  The New Mexico Attorney General, Gary King, filed a brief and issued a statement this week regarding the United States’ request to intervene in the US Supreme Court Case between Texas and New Mexico.  [To read brief, click here].  The United States seeks leave from the court to intervene as a party and has indicated that it agrees with Texas’ position in the case.  King stated that he believes the claim that New Mexico should not have issued groundwater permits (which impact the water available to downstream beneficiaries of an interstate compact) is a state law issue that should be heard in state court.  [Read article here.]

*  Five More States Join Lawsuit Against California.  As you read last week, Missouri filed suit against California claiming that restrictions that will prohibit the sale of eggs that are not produced under California standards violate the dormant commerce clause.  Late last week, six more states joined with Missouri.  Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Iowa have added their names to the suit.  Together, the plaintiff states produce over 20 billion eggs per year.  [Read article here.]

*  Yearly Water Well Checkup.  The National Ground Water Association recommends that while doing your spring cleaning, you take time to conduct an annual water well check up.  [Read article here.]

*Article on Texas Agriculture Law Blog.  The Texas Agriculture Law Blog was featured in an article published on Agrilife Today.  The article discusses the idea behind this blog, the growth of the blog over the past 8 months, and some of the most common issues that are going on in ag law today.  [Read article here.]