Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 2252 amends provisions of the Health and Safety Code relating to cost recovery actions and liens placed on homesteads by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The bill authorizes the executive director, before filing a lien, to take into consideration a landowner's financial ability to satisfy the lien, including whether the landowner received financial compensation for the disposal of any substance addressed by the remedial action and whether the real property that is the subject of the lien is being used as a home by the landowner and has a fair market value of $250,000 or less. The bill prohibits the commission from filing a cost recovery action if the individual's only significant asset is a homestead that includes the facility subject to or affected by a remedial action, is occupied as a home, and has a fair market value of $250,000 or less. It requires the commission by rule to adopt criteria for determining whether a potentially responsible party is financially capable of conducting any necessary remediation studies or remedial action if the responsible party is an individual whose homestead includes the facility subject to or affected by a remedial action. The bill requires the rules to prohibit including the value of the individual's homestead in the total amount of the individual's assets if the individual is occupying the homestead as a home and the fair market value of the homestead is $250,000 or less.