By: Perry S.B. No. 864
(In the Senate - Filed February 14, 2017; February 27, 2017,
read first time and referred to Committee on Agriculture, Water &
Rural Affairs; March 21, 2017, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; March 21, 2017, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the procedure for obtaining a right to use state water
if the applicant proposes an alternative source of water that is not
state water.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 11.132(c) and (d), Water Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(c) In the notice, the commission shall:
(1) state the name and address of the applicant;
(2) state the date the application was filed;
(3) state the purpose and extent of the proposed
appropriation of water;
(4) identify the source of supply and the place where
the water is to be stored or taken or diverted from the source of
supply;
(5) identify any proposed alternative source of water,
other than state water, identified by the applicant;
(6) specify the time and location where the commission
will consider the application; and
(7) [(6)] give any additional information the
commission considers necessary.
(d) The commission may act on the application without
holding a public hearing if:
(1) not less than 30 days before the date of action on
the application by the commission, the applicant has published the
commission's notice of the application at least once in a newspaper
regularly published or circulated within the section of the state
where the source of water is located;
(2) not less than 30 days before the date of action on
the application by the commission, the commission mails a copy of
the notice by first-class mail, postage prepaid, to:
(A) each claimant or appropriator of water from
the source of water supply, the record of whose claim or
appropriation has been filed with the commission; [and]
(B) each groundwater conservation district with
jurisdiction over the proposed groundwater production, if the
applicant proposes to use groundwater from a well located within a
groundwater conservation district as an alternative source of
water; and
(C) all navigation districts within the river
basin concerned; and
(3) within 30 days after the date of the newspaper
publication of the commission's notice, a public hearing has not
been requested in writing by a commissioner, the executive
director, or an affected person who objects to the application.
SECTION 2. Section 11.135(b), Water Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) The permit shall be in writing and attested by the seal
of the commission, and it shall contain substantially the following
information:
(1) the name of the person to whom the permit is
issued;
(2) the date the permit is issued;
(3) the date the original application was filed;
(4) the use or purpose for which the appropriation is
to be made;
(5) the amount or volume of water authorized to be
appropriated for each purpose; if use of the appropriated water is
authorized for multiple purposes, the permit shall contain a
special condition limiting the total amount of water that may
actually be diverted for all of the purposes to the amount of water
appropriated;
(6) a general description of the source of supply from
which the appropriation is proposed to be made, including any
alternative source of water that is not state water;
(7) the time within which construction or work must
begin and the time within which it must be completed; and
(8) any other information the commission prescribes.
SECTION 3. Sections 11.143(e) and (f), Water Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(e) In the notice, the commission shall:
(1) state the name and post-office address of the
applicant;
(2) state the date the application was filed;
(3) state the purpose and extent of the proposed
appropriation of water;
(4) identify the source of supply, including any
proposed alternative source of water, other than state water,
identified by the applicant, and the place where the water is
stored; and
(5) specify the time and place of the hearing.
(f) The notice shall be published only once, at least 20
days before the date stated in the notice for the hearing on the
application, in a newspaper having general circulation in the
county where the dam or reservoir is located. At least 15 days
before the date set for the hearing, the commission shall transmit a
copy of the notice by first-class mail to each person whose claim or
appropriation has been filed with the commission and whose
diversion point is downstream from that described in the
application. If the notice identifies groundwater from a well
located in a groundwater conservation district as a proposed
alternative source of water, the notice shall be:
(1) sent to the groundwater conservation district in
which the well is located; and
(2) published, at least 20 days before the date stated
in the notice for the hearing, in a newspaper having general
circulation in each county in which the groundwater district is
located.
SECTION 4. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
an application for a new or amended water right received by the
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on or after the effective
date of this Act. An application received before the effective date
of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the
application was received, and the former law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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