By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 1746
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to financial assistance provided to political
subdivisions by the Texas Water Development Board for nature-based
water quality enhancement projects.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 15.604(b), Water Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) The board shall adopt rules specifying the manner in
which any additional state revolving fund hereafter established by
the board, or any capitalization grant under the state water
pollution control revolving fund, the safe drinking water revolving
fund, or any additional state revolving fund, may be used to provide
financial assistance to an eligible applicant for public works.
Such rules shall require financial assistance to be provided for
the purpose or purposes and on the terms authorized by the federal
legislation or federal agency program under which the additional
state revolving fund was established or the capitalization grant
was awarded. To the extent not prohibited by board rule, any
additional state revolving fund established under this subchapter
may be used to provide financial assistance for projects described
by Section 17.280.
SECTION 2. Section 17.001(10), Water Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(10) "Water quality enhancement" means the
construction of treatment works or projects described by Section
17.280 by political subdivisions with loans provided by water
quality enhancement funds.
SECTION 3. Section 17.271, Water Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 17.271. PURPOSE. The purpose of this subchapter is to
provide for making loans of water quality enhancement funds
authorized by Article III, Sections 49-d-1, 49-d-2, 49-d-6, and
49-d-7, of the Texas Constitution to political subdivisions of the
state for water quality enhancement [the construction of treatment
works].
SECTION 4. Section 17.272, Water Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 17.272. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. The board may use water
quality enhancement funds to provide financial assistance to
political subdivisions for purposes of water quality enhancement,
including projects proposed under the water resource restoration
program established under Section 17.280.
SECTION 5. Section 17.274, Water Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (b) to read as follows:
(b) An application for financial assistance administered
through the water resource restoration program established under
Section 17.280 must include a copy of a resolution approving the
proposed project adopted by the governing body of a municipality or
special purpose district or the commissioners court of a county in
which the proposed project is to be located.
SECTION 6. Section 17.275, Water Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 17.275. CONSIDERATIONS IN PASSING ON APPLICATION. In
passing on an application from a political subdivision for
financial assistance for water quality enhancement purposes, the
board shall consider:
(1) the water quality needs of the waters into which
effluent from the treatment works will be discharged, the benefit
of the treatment works to such water quality needs, the
relationship of the treatment works to the overall, statewide water
quality needs; and the relationship of the treatment works to water
quality planning for the state;
(2) the availability of revenue to the political
subdivision, from all sources, for the ultimate repayment of the
cost of the treatment works, including interest; [and]
(3) whether the political subdivision has been
designated, pursuant to Section 26.082 of this code, to provide a
regional system to serve all or part of the waste disposal needs of
a defined area, the development of such systems being the declared
policy of the legislature; and
(4) whether the political subdivision proposes a
project through the water resource restoration program established
under Section 17.280.
SECTION 7. Section 17.279, Water Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 17.279. LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS. If there is
insufficient money available to fund all applications under this
subchapter, the board shall give preference to applications for
political subdivisions that:
(1) the board finds cannot reasonably finance the
treatment works without assistance from the state;
(2) propose a project through the water resource
restoration program established under Section 17.280 that provides
a significant improvement to water quality in the relevant
watershed; or
(3) propose a project through the water resource
restoration program established under Section 17.280 that affects
a disadvantaged community, as determined by board rule.
SECTION 8. Subchapter F, Chapter 17, Water Code, is amended
by adding Section 17.280 to read as follows:
Sec. 17.280. WATER RESOURCE RESTORATION PROGRAM. (a) In
this section:
(1) "Program" means the water resource restoration
program.
(2) "Project" means nature-based infrastructure that
will improve water quality in the political subdivision where the
project is located and includes the acquisition of real property
and the use of nature-based water treatment technologies.
(b) The board shall establish and administer the water
resource restoration program to assist in enhancing water quality
in the state through the provision of financial assistance to
political subdivisions for locally directed projects.
(c) The board will create an option to bundle a water
resource restoration project with a state revolving fund project
so the total cost of both projects to the applicant will be no more
than the cost of the state revolving fund project alone.
(d) A proposed project must be compatible with the goals of
the program and include the application of best management
practices for the primary purpose of water quality protection and
improvement. A proposed project may include:
(1) the preservation or restoration of regional scale
natural landscape features, including forests, floodplains, and
wetlands;
(2) practices that reduce impervious cover in a
watershed;
(3) practices that increase water infiltration and
retention, including the use of bioretention, trees, green roofs,
permeable pavements, rain gardens, constructed wetlands, and
cisterns;
(4) the implementation of green streets in public
rights-of-way;
(5) the implementation of a comprehensive street tree
or urban forestry program to manage stormwater and enhance tree
health;
(6) the expanded use of tree box filters;
(7) stormwater collection and distribution systems,
including cisterns, separate stormwater sewer systems, and
downspout disconnection systems that use onsite stormwater
management and remove stormwater from sewer systems;
(8) soil quality enhancement activities;
(9) the removal and replacement of turf with native
grasses and vegetation that improve water infiltration;
(10) the establishment or restoration of permanent
riparian buffers, floodplains, wetlands, and other natural
features including vegetative buffers, grass swales, soft
bioengineered stream banks, and stream daylighting;
(11) the management of wetlands to improve water
quality and support water infiltration and retention; and
(12) sustainable landscaping to improve hydrologic
processes.
(e) A proposed project may not include:
(1) passive recreation activities and trails
including bike trails, playgrounds, athletic fields, picnic
tables, and picnic grounds;
(2) non-permeable surface parking lots;
(3) stormwater ponds or dirt-lined detention basins
that serve an extended or filtration function;
(4) in-line and end-of-pipe treatment systems that
only filter or detain stormwater without the use of natural plants
and trees;
(5) underground stormwater control and treatment
devices, including hydrodynamic separators, baffle systems for
grit, trash removal, and oil and grease separators;
(6) stormwater conveyance systems, including pipes
and concrete channels, that are not soil or vegetation based;
(7) hardening, channelizing, dredging, or
straightening streams or stream banks;
(8) street sweepers, sewer cleaners, and vacuum trucks
unless they support nature-based infrastructure projects; and
(9) supplemental environmental projects required as a
part of a consent decree.
(f) A project may not include the acquisition of property,
an interest in property, or improvements to property through the
use of eminent domain.
(g) The board shall adopt rules to establish a means of
prioritizing projects in disadvantaged communities. The board
shall include the following criteria to determine whether a
political subdivision seeking financing under this section is a
disadvantaged community:
(1) median household income in the community as a
percentage of statewide household income;
(2) annual water and sewer rates as a percentage of
median household income in the community;
(3) families below the poverty level in the community
as a percentage of the statewide number of families below the
poverty level;
(4) per capita outstanding debt of the wastewater
system serving the community as a percentage of median household
income in the community; and
(5) cost-effectiveness calculated by determining
construction costs of the proposed project per user.
(h) An application for the financing of a project under
this section must include a viability assessment that includes:
(1) the ability of the applicant to provide proper
oversight and management through a certified operator; and
(2) the financial ability of the users to support the
long-term maintenance of the project.
(i) The board shall adopt rules necessary for the
implementation and administration of this section.
SECTION 9. Not later than September 1, 2022, the Texas Water
Development Board shall adopt rules necessary to implement Section
17.280, Water Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 10. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.