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House Bill 149 |
House Author: Phillips |
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Effective: 9-1-07 |
Senate Sponsor: Estes |
House Bill 149 amends the Water Code to require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) by rule to establish a procedure allowing a retail public utility that takes over the provision of services for a nonfunctioning retail water or sewer service provider to charge a reasonable rate to customers and to bill them at that rate immediately to recover service costs. The rules must provide a streamlined process that allows the takeover utility to apply to the TCEQ for a ruling on rate reasonableness. They must provide also for adequate consideration of interconnection costs and costs of bringing the inherited system into compliance with TCEQ rules. The bill requires the TCEQ to provide a reasonable period for the takeover utility to reach such compliance, during which the TCEQ may not impose a penalty for an inherited system deficiency.