By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 519
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the issuance of a permit for a municipal solid waste
landfill facility located in a special flood hazard area.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 361.1232 to read as follows:
Sec. 361.1232. LIMITATION ON MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL
IN SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREA. (a) In this section:
(1) "Facility" means all land, improvements on land,
structures, and appurtenances, including drainage structures,
groundwater monitoring wells, landfill gas probes, and gate or
scale houses, that are used for the storage, processing, or
disposal of solid waste.
(2) "Special flood hazard area" means the land in a
floodplain subject to not less than one percent chance of flooding
in a year as designated by the director or administrator of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
(b) The commission may not issue a permit for a new
municipal solid waste landfill facility or a lateral expansion of
an existing municipal solid waste landfill facility that is
contingent on the removal of a part of the facility from a special
flood hazard area.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), the commission may
not issue a permit for a new municipal solid waste landfill facility
to be located in a special flood hazard area or for a lateral
expansion of an existing municipal solid waste landfill facility if
a part of the facility is or will be located in a special flood
hazard area unless the applicant has obtained from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency a letter of map change demonstrating
that the entire facility has been removed from the special flood
hazard area. A conditional letter of map amendment issued by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency does not satisfy the
requirements of this subsection.
(d) The commission shall coordinate with all applicable
regional and local governments to verify that all required map
changes to the Flood Insurance Rate Map have been acquired from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and that all necessary permits
have been issued for the facility by the governmental entities or
agencies with jurisdiction over the facility under Section 16.235,
Texas Water Code, or Chapter 16, Subchapter I, Texas Water Code.
SECTION 2. Section 361.1232, Health and Safety Code, as
added by this Act, applies only to an application for the issuance
or amendment of a permit for a municipal solid waste landfill
facility that is pending before the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality on or after the effective date of this Act. A
permit for a municipal solid waste landfill facility that is issued
or amended before the effective date of this Act is governed by the
law in effect when the permit was issued or amended, 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, 2023.