By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 1817
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a limitation on the location of solid waste facilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 361.101, Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 361.101. PROHIBITION ON PERMIT FOR FACILITY ON
RECHARGE ZONE OF CERTAIN AQUIFERS [SOLE SOURCE AQUIFER]. The
commission by rule shall prohibit the issuance of a permit for a new
hazardous waste landfill, municipal solid waste facility, land
treatment facility, surface impoundment, or waste pile, or areal
expansion of such a facility, if the facility is to be located on
the recharge zone :
(1) a sole source aquifer; or
(2) an aquifer that is:
(A) designated by the Texas Water Development
Board as a major aquifer; and
(B) a source of water for a municipality that:
(i) has a population of at least one
million; and
(ii) is located more than 100 miles from the
Gulf of Mexico.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
an application for the issuance of a permit pending before the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality on or after the effective date
of this Act. A permit issued before the effective date of this Act
is governed by the law in effect when the permit was issued, and the
former 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, 2015.