By: Seliger S.B. No. 313
(Price)
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. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, 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. Subsection (a), Section 35.007, 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 3. 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.