H.B. No. 2387
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 16, 2009;
April 16, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on
Natural Resources; April 22, 2009, reported favorably by the
following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; April 22, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of the General Land Office to undertake
coastal erosion studies and projects in conjunction with qualified
project partners.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 33.603(b), (d), (f), and (h), Natural
Resources Code, are amended to read as follows:
(b) The studies and projects shall address:
(1) assessment of the feasibility, cost, and financing
of different methods of avoiding, slowing, or remedying coastal
erosion;
(2) beneficial placement of dredged material where
appropriate to replenish eroded public beach, bay shore, marsh, and
dune areas;
(3) public beach, bay shore, and marsh nourishment or
restoration projects using sediments other than material from
navigational or other dredging projects;
(4) guidelines on grain size and toxicity level;
(5) the economic, natural resource, and other benefits
of coastal erosion projects;
(6) the protection, revegetation, and restoration of
dunes;
(7) the planting of vegetation as a means of
inhibiting bay shore erosion and projects developing and
cultivating disease-resistant vegetation adapted to local
conditions;
(8) the construction or retrofitting of dams, jetties,
groins, and other impoundment structures, provided that the
structures include sediment bypassing systems;
(9) estimating the quantity and quality of sediment
trapped by reservoirs, navigation channels, and placement areas and
identification of other sediment sources;
(10) the use of hard or soft structures on bay
shorelines as a method of avoiding, slowing, or remedying erosion;
(11) storm damage mitigation, post-storm damage
assessment, and debris removal;
(12) [, and] removal and relocation of structures from
public beaches, including the purchase of property located on a
public beach;
(13) the acquisition of property necessary for the
construction, reconstruction, maintenance, widening, or extension
of an erosion response project under this subchapter;
(14) [(12)] structural shoreline protection projects
that use innovative technologies designed or engineered to minimize
beach scour; and
(15) [(13)] other studies or projects the
commissioner considers necessary or appropriate to implement this
subchapter.
(d) Except as provided by Subsections (b)(8) and (14)
[(12)], this chapter does not authorize the construction or funding
of a hard structure on or landward of a public beach.
(f) Notwithstanding Subsections (c) and (e), each biennium
the commissioner may undertake at least one erosion response
[large-scale beach nourishment] project [on a public beach] without
requiring a qualified project partner to pay a portion of the shared
project cost if the total cost of the projects that do not have a
cost share requirement [project] does not exceed one-half
[one-third] of the total amount appropriated to the land office for
coastal erosion planning and response.
(h) Notwithstanding Subsection (e), the commissioner may
determine the percentage of the shared project cost a qualified
project partner must pay for a project undertaken pursuant to
Subsection (b)(11), (12), or (13) [for removal of debris or
structures, or relocation of structures from the public beach;
provided, however, that no money in the account may be used for a
project undertaken pursuant to Subsection (b)(11) to purchase real
property or reimburse a property owner for the purchase of real
property].
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.
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