Emily Rogers practices in the areas of water and environmental law. From permitting to transactional matters, Emily represents cities, river authorities, and water districts in matters involving surface and groundwater water rights, water and wastewater utility matters, water issues, and industrial and municipal solid waste disposal.
Born and raised in San Marcos, Texas, Emily earned her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center after completing her B.A. degree from the University of Texas and her M.A. degree from Southwest Texas State University. After law school, she returned to Austin and was a staff attorney at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the predecessor agency to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, where she represented the agency in contested cases involving wastewater permit applications and provided legal counsel to the state’s Superfund program.
Board Certified in Administrative Law, Emily is the reporter on Water Law Developments in Texas for The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law’s Water Law Newsletter. She is also the co-author of the River Authorities and Regional Water Districts chapter in Essentials of Texas Water Resources and previously served as a columnist for the Texas Environmental Law Journal. In addition, Emily is a frequent speaker at water law and local government conferences.
Emily is an active member of the Texas Water Association (formerly Texas Water Conservation Association), where she serves as a board member and chair of the Flood and Navigation Panel. She also serves on the Administrative Law Advisory Commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, is a member of the Administrative and Public Law Council for the Administrative and Public Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, and is co-chair of the Water Rights Committee of the Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. In addition to her volunteer involvement and leadership roles, Emily serves as the Managing Partner of Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLC.
Emily represents cities, water districts, and private entities before the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC), the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). Her practice before the PUC includes filing and assisting clients with the applications for new or amended certificates of convenience and necessity, assisting clients with the sale or purchase of retail public utilities, and the transfer of CCN territory between retail and public utilities, including filing sale, transfer, merger applications, and Texas Water Code § 13.248 agreements designating service territory. Emily also assists clients with expedited decertification petitions. In addition, she represents clients before the PUC in rate-making proceedings and appeals of rate changes, and service area disputes. She also advises clients with issues related to retail public utilities with federal debt, and assists the Firm’s litigation team in lawsuits against both private and governmental clients involving claims under 7 U.S.C.A. § 1926(b). Emily’s TCEQ practice includes representing clients in permitting and enforcement matters. She assists clients in preparing and filing applications for new or amended water rights, wastewater discharge permits, and solid waste disposal permits. If any of her clients’ matters before the PUC or TCEQ are contested, she represents them in contested case hearings before SOAH.
In addition to her regulatory work before the TCEQ and the PUC, Emily negotiates water and sewer wholesale contracts, franchise fee agreements, reclaimed water agreements, and agreements for the purchase or lease of surface water and groundwater rights. She assists clients in developing pretreatment regulations, stormwater and non-point source pollution control ordinances, and onsite septic system regulations. She also counsels her local government clients on impact fees, and assists those clients in preparing water and sewer utility rates, usage and extension requirements, as well as drought contingency and water conservation plans. Additionally, Emily counsels clients in groundwater regulatory matters and assists clients with groundwater rights permitting.
