83R23877 JAM-D
By: Burnam, Lucio III, Callegari H.B. No. 3605
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3605:
By: Johnson C.S.H.B. No. 3605
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the evaluation by the Texas Water Development Board of
applications for financial assistance for certain retail public
utilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Chapter 17, Water Code, is amended
by adding Section 17.1245 to read as follows:
Sec. 17.1245. EVALUATION AND MODIFICATION OF CERTAIN
APPLICATIONS. (a) In passing on an application for financial
assistance from a retail public utility that provides potable water
service to 3,300 or more connections, the board shall:
(1) evaluate the utility's system water loss based on
the most recent audit prepared under Section 16.0121;
(2) evaluate for compliance with the board's best
management practices the utility's water conservation plan
required under Section 13.146; and
(3) issue a report to the utility detailing the
results of the evaluation conducted under Subdivision (2).
(b) Not later than January 1 of each odd-numbered year, the
board shall submit to the legislature a written summary of the
results of evaluations conducted under Subsection (a)(2).
(c) If an evaluation conducted under Subsection (a)(1)
indicates that a utility's system water loss exceeds 15 percent
annually, the board:
(1) shall require the utility to amend the utility's
application for financial assistance to include a plan to reduce
the utility's system water loss to less than 15 percent annually;
and
(2) may require that a portion of financial assistance
awarded under this chapter be used to mitigate the system water loss
or award additional financial assistance for that purpose.
(d) The board, by a two-thirds vote, may exempt from the
application of Subsection (c) a utility whose system water loss
exceeds 15 percent.
SECTION 2. Section 17.1245, Water Code, as added by this
Act, applies only to an application for financial assistance
submitted on or after the effective date of this Act. An
application for financial assistance submitted before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the application was submitted, and the former law is continued
in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.