Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SB1386 Compare Versions

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1	1	By: Seliger S.B. No. 1386
2	2
3	3
4	4	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
5	5	AN ACT
6	6	relating to priority groundwater management areas.
7	7	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
8	8	SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, Water Code, is
9	9	amended to read as follows:
10	10	(a) The executive director and the executive administrator
11	11	shall meet periodically to identify, based on information gathered
12	12	by the commission and the Texas Water Development Board, those
13	13	areas of the state that are experiencing or that are expected to
14	14	experience, within the immediately following 50-year [25-year]
15	15	period, critical groundwater problems, including shortages of
16	16	surface water or groundwater, land subsidence resulting from
17	17	groundwater withdrawal, and contamination of groundwater supplies.
18	18	Not later than September 1, 2005, the commission, with assistance
19	19	and cooperation from the Texas Water Development Board, shall
20	20	complete the initial designation of priority groundwater
21	21	management areas across all major and minor aquifers of the state
22	22	for all areas that meet the criteria for that designation. The
23	23	studies may be prioritized considering information from the
24	24	regional planning process, information from the Texas Water
25	25	Development Board groundwater management areas and from
26	26	groundwater conservation districts, and any other information
27	27	available. After the initial designation of priority groundwater
28	28	management areas, the commission and the Texas Water Development
29	29	Board shall annually review the need for additional designations as
30	30	provided by this subsection.
31	31	SECTION 2. Section 35.008, Water Code, is amended by adding
32	32	Subsection (j) to read as follows:
33	33	(j) The commission may adopt rules regarding:
34	34	(1) the creation of a district over all or part of a
35	35	priority groundwater management area that was designated as a
36	36	critical area under Chapter 35, Water Code, as that chapter existed
37	37	before September 1, 1997, or under other prior law; and
38	38	(2) the addition of all or part of the land in a
39	39	priority groundwater management area described by Subdivision (1)
40	40	to an existing district.
41	41	SECTION 3. All governmental acts and proceedings, including
42	42	the adoption of rules, of the Texas Commission on Environmental
43	43	Quality relating to the creation of a groundwater conservation
44	44	district over all or part of a priority groundwater management area
45	45	that was designated as a critical area under Chapter 35, Water Code,
46	46	as that chapter existed before September 1, 1997, or under other
47	47	prior law, are validated in all respects as of the dates on which
48	48	they occurred.
49	49	SECTION 4. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, Water Code, as
50	50	amended by this Act, applies only to a designation of a priority
51	51	groundwater management area made by the Texas Commission on
52	52	Environmental Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. A
53	53	designation made before the effective date of this Act is governed
54	54	by the law in effect when the designation was made, and that law is
55	55	continued in effect for that purpose.
56	56	SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
57	57	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
58	58	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
59	59	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
60	60	Act takes effect September 1, 2009.