The San Saba basin is on the northern edge of the Edwards Plateau south east of San Angelo, Texas. It is drained by the San Saba River, an overappropriated poorly regulated steam. An article in The New York Times July 18, 2013 about the San Saba basin illustrates poor regulation of the waters of that basin. The San Saba river has creased to flow for 3 years depriving downstream riparian users of water for domestic use and livestock watering. Vain calls were made to limit upstream irrigating. Meanwhile groundwater pumping upsteam was in progress with groundwater users denying any connection between their pumping and stream flow. With no state agency regularly administering water, the option presented to water rights owners was to hire a watermaster.