(a) Nothing in this article affects in any way the rights of any person to enforce or protect, under applicable law, the person's interest in water resources affected by an oil or gas operation.
(b) Unless rebutted by one of the defenses established in subsection (c) of this section, in any action for contamination or deprivation of a fresh water source or supply within one thousand five hundred feet of the center of the well pad for horizontal well, there is a rebuttable presumption that the drilling and the oil or gas well or either was the proximate cause of the contamination or deprivation of the fresh water source or supply.
(c) In order to rebut the presumption of liability established in subsection (b) of this section, the operator must prove by a preponderance of the evidence one of the following defenses:
(1) The pollution existed prior to the drilling or alteration activity as determined by a predrilling or prealteration water well test.