82R12612 JXC-F
By: Munoz, Jr. H.B. No. 2888
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to expedited release from a certificate of public
convenience and necessity for water and sewer service for certain
landowners.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 13.254, Water Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (a-2) and adding Subsection (a-5) to
read as follows:
(a) The commission at any time after notice and hearing may,
on its own motion or on receipt of a petition described by this
section [Subsection (a-1)], revoke or amend any certificate of
public convenience and necessity with the written consent of the
certificate holder or if it finds that:
(1) the certificate holder has never provided, is no
longer providing, is incapable of providing, or has failed to
provide continuous and adequate service in the area, or part of the
area, covered by the certificate;
(2) in an affected county as defined in Section
16.341, the cost of providing service by the certificate holder is
so prohibitively expensive as to constitute denial of service,
provided that, for commercial developments or for residential
developments started after September 1, 1997, in an affected county
as defined in Section 16.341, the fact that the cost of obtaining
service from the currently certificated retail public utility makes
the development economically unfeasible does not render such cost
prohibitively expensive in the absence of other relevant factors;
(3) the certificate holder has agreed in writing to
allow another retail public utility to provide service within its
service area, except for an interim period, without amending its
certificate; or
(4) the certificate holder has failed to file a cease
and desist action pursuant to Section 13.252 within 180 days of the
date that it became aware that another retail public utility was
providing service within its service area, unless the certificate
holder demonstrates good cause for its failure to file such action
within the 180 days.
(a-2) A landowner is not entitled to make the election
described in Subsection (a-1) but is entitled to contest the
involuntary certification of its property in a hearing held by the
commission if the landowner's property is located:
(1) within the boundaries of any municipality or the
extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality with a population
of more than 500,000 and the municipality or retail public utility
owned by the municipality is the holder of the certificate; or
(2) in a platted subdivision actually receiving water
or sewer service from a certificate holder other than a rural water
supply corporation that owes a debt to the federal government under
7 U.S.C. Section 1926.
(a-5) Notwithstanding Subsection (a-1), a landowner may
petition for expedited release under that subsection and is
entitled to that release if:
(1) the landowner's property is located in the
boundaries of a municipality;
(2) the certificate holder serving the landowner's
property is a rural water supply corporation that owes a debt to the
federal government under 7 U.S.C. Section 1926; and
(3) in addition to the requirements of Subsection
(a-1), the landowner demonstrates in the landowner's petition that
the rural water supply corporation has refused to provide or is not
capable of providing service in the same manner that the
municipality would be required to provide if the municipality held
the certificate for the landowner's property.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.