82R719 SLB-D
By: Seliger S.B. No. 313
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to priority groundwater management areas.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 35.007(a), Water Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) The executive director and the executive administrator
shall meet periodically to identify, based on information gathered
by the commission and the Texas Water Development Board, those
areas of the state that are experiencing or that are expected to
experience, within the immediately following 50-year [25-year]
period, critical groundwater problems, including shortages of
surface water or groundwater, land subsidence resulting from
groundwater withdrawal, and contamination of groundwater supplies.
Not later than September 1, 2005, the commission, with assistance
and cooperation from the Texas Water Development Board, shall
complete the initial designation of priority groundwater
management areas across all major and minor aquifers of the state
for all areas that meet the criteria for that designation. The
studies may be prioritized considering information from the
regional planning process, information from the Texas Water
Development Board groundwater management areas and from
groundwater conservation districts, and any other information
available. After the initial designation of priority groundwater
management areas, the commission and the Texas Water Development
Board shall annually review the need for additional designations as
provided by this subsection.
SECTION 2. Section 35.008, Water Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (j) to read as follows:
(j) The commission may adopt rules regarding:
(1) the creation of a district over all or part of a
priority groundwater management area that was designated as a
critical area under Chapter 35, Water Code, as that chapter existed
before September 1, 1997, or under other prior law; and
(2) the addition of all or part of the land in a
priority groundwater management area described by Subdivision (1)
to an existing district.
SECTION 3. All governmental acts and proceedings, including
the adoption of rules, of the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality relating to the creation of a groundwater conservation
district over all or part of a priority groundwater management area
that was designated as a critical area under Chapter 35, Water Code,
as that chapter existed before September 1, 1997, or under other
prior law, are validated in all respects as of the dates on which
they occurred.
SECTION਄. Section 35.007(a), Water Code, as amended by
this Act, applies only to a designation of a priority groundwater
management area made by the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. A designation
made before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in
effect when the designation was made, and that law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
SECTION 5. 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, 2011.