81R20310 JAM-D
By: Creighton, Eissler H.B. No. 179
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 179:
By: Miller of Comal C.S.H.B. No. 179
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the application of new requirements for commercial
underground injection control wells to be adopted by the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) As soon as practicable after the effective
date of this Act, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
shall adopt rules regulating the surface facilities associated with
new commercial wells that propose to accept nonhazardous industrial
waste for which a permit has not been issued on or before the
effective date of this Act. In this section:
(1) "Commercial well" means a Class I injection well,
as defined by commission rule, that a person may use to dispose of
nonhazardous industrial solid wastes for a charge. The term does
not include:
(A) an injection well that is part of an
integrated waste management unit of a captured facility; or
(B) an injection well at which only waste from
facilities owned or effectively controlled by the same person is
disposed.
(2) "Captured facility" means a manufacturing or
production facility that generates an industrial solid waste or
hazardous waste that is routinely stored, processed, or disposed of
on a shared basis in an integrated waste management unit owned by,
operated by, and located within a contiguous manufacturing complex.
(b) The rules adopted under Subsection (a) of this section
may not apply to an application for a permit for an injection well:
(1) used solely for the injection of carbon dioxide;
or
(2) for which the surface facilities are associated
with a well for which a permit is issued before the effective date
of this Act.
SECTION 2. (a) The Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality shall suspend the permitting process for any pending
application for a permit for a new commercial well that proposes to
accept nonhazardous industrial waste and to which Section 1 of this
Act applies until the rules adopted under that section take effect.
(b) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall
provide that the rules adopted under Section 1 of this Act apply to
every application for a permit for a new commercial well that
proposes to accept nonhazardous industrial waste and to which
Section 1 of this Act applies that is filed on or after the
effective date of this Act and every application for a permit for a
new commercial well that proposes to accept nonhazardous industrial
waste and to which Section 1 of this Act applies that is pending on
the effective date of this Act.
(c) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality may allow
an applicant who filed such an application that is pending on the
effective date of this Act to amend the application to conform to
the rules adopted under Section 1 of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2009.