By: Hegar S.B. No. 873
(In the Senate - Filed February 27, 2013; March 5, 2013, read
first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
April 10, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 8,
Nays 2; April 10, 2013, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of a groundwater conservation district to
require a permit for the drilling or operation of a water well used
to supply water for the performance of a hydraulic fracturing
treatment on an oil or gas well.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 36.117, Water Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (a-1) to read as follows:
(a-1) The district may not provide an exemption to the
district's requirement to obtain a permit for a water well used to
supply water for:
(1) the performance of a hydraulic fracturing
treatment on an oil or gas well; or
(2) other activities related to the production of oil
or gas from a completed oil or gas well.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a well for which drilling is commenced on or after the effective
date of this Act. A well for which drilling is commenced before the
effective date of this Act is subject to the law in effect
immediately before that date, and that law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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