By: Nichols S.B. No. 430
(In the Senate - Filed January 27, 2011; February 2, 2011,
read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
March 16, 2011, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 10,
Nays 0; March 16, 2011, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to written notice to a groundwater conservation district
of groundwater contamination.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Section 5.236, Water Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) If the executive director acquires information that
confirms that a potential public health hazard exists because
usable groundwater has been or is being contaminated, the executive
director, not later than the 30th day after the date on which the
executive director acquires the information confirming
contamination, shall give written notice of the contamination to
the following persons:
(1) the county judge and the county health officer, if
any, in each county in which the contamination has occurred or is
occurring;
(2) any person under the commission's jurisdiction who
is suspected of contributing to the contamination; [and]
(3) any other state agency with jurisdiction over any
person who is suspected of contributing to the contamination; and
(4) a groundwater conservation district, if the
contamination has occurred or is occurring in the jurisdiction of
the district.
SECTION 2. This Act applies only to groundwater
contamination about which the executive director of the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality acquires information on or
after the effective date of this Act. Groundwater contamination
about which the executive director of the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality acquires information before the effective
date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the
information is acquired, and the former law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
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