By: Uresti S.B. No. 2445
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the disposal of sewage by certain boats.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), and (f), Section
26.044, Water Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) In [As used in] this section:
(1) "Boat"[, "boat"] means any vessel or other
watercraft, whether moved by oars, paddles, sails, or other power
mechanism, inboard or outboard, or any other vessel or structure
floating on surface water in the [this] state, whether or not
capable of self-locomotion, including but not limited to cabin
cruisers, houseboats, barges, marinas, and similar floating
objects. The term does not include a vessel subject to inspection
under 46 U.S.C. Section 3301.
(2) "Boat pump-out station" means any private or
public shoreside, mobile, or floating installation either
independent of or in addition to an organized waste collection,
treatment, and disposal system used to receive boat sewage.
(3) "Shoreside, mobile, or floating installation"
means marinas and other installations servicing boats on surface
water in the state.
(4) "Surface water in the state" means all lakes,
bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams,
creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico out
three nautical miles into the Gulf, and all other bodies of surface
water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt,
navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all
watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or
partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction
of the state, except waters beyond three nautical miles of any shore
in the state.
(b) The commission shall issue rules concerning the
disposal of sewage from boats located or operated on surface water
in the [inland fresh waters in this] state. The rules of the
commission shall include provisions for the establishment of
standards for sewage disposal devices, the certification of sewage
disposal devices, including shoreside and mobile boat [on-shore]
pump-out stations [facilities], and the visible and conspicuous
display of evidence of certification of sewage disposal devices on
each boat equipped with such device and on each shoreside and mobile
[on-shore] pump-out device.
(c) The commission may delegate the administration and
performance of the certification function to the executive director
or to another [any other] governmental entity. The commission or
delegated authority shall collect the following fees from
applicants for certification:
Boat Pump-out Station (biennial) [Certificates (annual)]:
Initial Certificates for Pump-out $35
Pump-out Renewal $25
Marine Sanitation Device (biennial):
Boat over 26 Feet or Houseboat $15
Boat 26 Feet or less with Permanent Device $15
All certification fees shall be paid to the commission or delegated
authority [entity] performing the certification function. All fees
collected by any state agency shall be deposited to the credit of
the water resource management account for use by the commission or
delegated authority [that agency in administering and performing
the certification function].
(d) Before issuing any rules under Subsection (b) [of this
section], the commission or any person authorized by it under
Section 26.021 on request may [of this code shall] hold hearings on
those rules in Austin and in five other locations in the state in
order to provide the best opportunity for all citizens of the state
to appear and present evidence to the commission.
(f) Copies of each rule issued by the commission under this
section shall be filed in the offices of the commission in Austin,
in the office of the Secretary of State in Austin, and posted on the
commission's Internet website [the office of the county clerk in
each county in the state]. The commission shall provide for
publication of notice of each rule issued under this section in at
least one newspaper of general circulation in each county of the
state and shall furnish the county judge of each county of the state
a copy of the rules.
SECTION 2. Subsections (a), (b), and (c), Section 26.045,
Water Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) In this section "boat," "boat pump-out station,"
"shoreside, mobile, or floating installation," and "surface water
in the state" have the meanings assigned by[:
[(1) "Boat" means the same as defined in] Section
26.044 [26.044(a), Water Code].
[(2) "Boat pump-out station" means any private or
public shoreside installation either independent of or in addition
to an organized waste collection, treatment, and disposal system
used to receive boat sewage.
[(3) "Shoreside installation" means marinas and other
installations servicing boats on fresh water of Texas.
[(4) "Fresh water" means as geographically applied all
of the surface lakes, streams, and reservoirs of the state,
exclusive of the extent of ordinary tidal action on this water.]
(b) After a public hearing and after making every reasonable
effort to bring about the establishment of an adequate number of
boat pump-out stations on surface [fresh] water in the state, the
commission may enter an order requiring the establishment of boat
pump-out stations by a local government that has any jurisdiction
over at least a portion of the surface [fresh] water in the state or
over land immediately adjacent to the [fresh] water.
(c) If a local government is authorized to issue
authorization for the operation of shoreside, mobile, or floating
installations, the local government may require the installation
and operation of boat pump-out stations where necessary. The local
government shall require the installation and operation of boat
pump-out stations if required by the commission.
SECTION 3. The heading to Section 31.129, Parks and
Wildlife Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 31.129. VIOLATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF SEWAGE DISPOSAL
REGULATIONS.
SECTION 4. Section 31.129, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (c) and
(d) to read as follows:
(a) A person who violates or fails to comply with a rule of
the Texas [Natural Resource Conservation] Commission on
Environmental Quality concerning the disposal of sewage from boats
commits an offense that is a Class C Parks and Wildlife Code
misdemeanor. A separate offense is committed each day a violation
continues.
(c) A game warden or peace officer who is certified as a
marine safety enforcement officer under Section 31.121 may enforce
a rule of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality concerning
the disposal of sewage from boats.
(d) A marine safety enforcement officer who reasonably
suspects that a boat is discharging sewage in an area where
discharge is prohibited may, if the owner or operator is aboard,
board the boat for the purpose of inspecting the marine sanitation
device for proper operation and testing the sanitation and holding
devices, including placing a dye tablet in the holding tank.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.