Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1979 adds Water Code provisions relating to the prevention of untreated wastewater discharges and sanitary sewer overflows resulting from grease blockage. It requires the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to adopt model discharge prevention standards for use by a wastewater collection system, separate and distinct from a storm sewer system, that conveys wastewater to a publicly owned treatment plant. The bill specifies various elements to be addressed by the standards, including grease traps, a uniform manifest system, and a schedule of penalties. It requires the TCEQ to establish criteria for evaluating whether to initiate an enforcement action related to sanitary sewer overflows, including consideration of whether a spill could reasonably have been prevented, was minimized, and was reported and was the subject of legally required notice. A separate system's adoption and enforcement of the model standards constitute evidence tending to show that reasonable prevention or minimization measures have been taken. The bill provides that when a home-rule municipality has a plan to control or minimize sanitary sewer overflows, its power to maintain, repair, relocate, or replace a water or sanitary sewer lateral or service line on private property without levying an assessment is not limited by certain other provisions of law.