Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB1397, As Introduced: an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2025.

The bill would require TCEQ to consider the number of minor, moderate, and major violations when setting the criteria for an entity to be classified as a repeat violator and would allow TCEQ to review, suspend, or reclassify permitted entities' compliance history if TCEQ finds that exigent circumstances exist. The bill would increase the maximum administrative penalty from $25,000 to $40,000 per day for each violation after the second violation.

The bill would add statute authorizing TCEQ to hold public meetings virtually and to publish notices of permit applications on its website and through other means. Under the provisions of the bill, the commission would be required to consider and accommodate individuals in the affected area who do not have access to the internet. The bill would not authorize TCEQ to utilize its online website to post notifications of permits online if that does not comply with federally required posting notices. 

The bill would create a diversion program for small business and local governments. The bill would require that the program include compliance assistance training, technical assistance and training. The bill would prohibit TCEQ from pursing enforcement action against a small business or local government after the entity has completed the diversion program. 

The bill would require that entities with a temporary or open-ended permit annually confirm the operational status of the permitted facility. The bill would require that all temporary or open-ended permit holders confirm their operation status by December 31, 2024.

The bill would create a new type of permit for temporary for concreate batch plant operations related to a public works project. The newly created permit would be governed by the existing environmental regulations applied to permeant concrete batch plants. The bill would set a limit of one year for the temporary permit and only allows the permit to be renewed once. The bill creates requirements for providing notice of the permitting of a temporary concreate batch plant. 

The bill would require the Environmental Flows Advisory Group to adopt a biennial statewide work plan for updating environmental flow standards and require the Advisory Group to submit the work plan to TCEQ. 

Based on information provided, creating an enforcement diversion program for small businesses and local governments would require $80,000 in fiscal year 2024 to update its existing system to implement the program, and 19.0 FTEs to support the program. TCEQ indicated that it would require 16.0 Natural Resource Specialist IIs, 1.0 Natural Resource Specialist III, 1.0 Natural Resource Specialist V, and 1.0 Program Supervisor VI each fiscal year. This analysis assumes that the total costs for these FTEs would be $1,400,000 each fiscal year.

Based on the analysis of the Comptroller of Public Accounts, the revenue gain that would be realized from increasing the maximum administrative penalty fees included in the bill from $25,000 to $40,000 cannot be estimated because the number of penalties and the amount that would be assessed is unknown.