Historically, parties have seldom been concerned with the question of who owned produced water.  Produced water was simply a form of waste.  Regulations required the lessee to properly dispose of the water and it was understood that this would be done at the lessee’s cost.  But what if circumstances change to the extent that produced water becomes valuable—either for the water itself or constituents (perhaps rare earth elements) in the water?  Who owns the water—the landowner, a mineral servitude (or mineral estate) owner, or the mineral lessee?  And who owns the right to extract valuable constituents from the water?  This presentation will address these issues from the standpoint of Louisiana and Texas law.