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House Bill 2666 |
House Author: Ritter |
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Effective: 5-12-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Williams |
House Bill 2666 amends the law to authorize the Lower Neches Valley Authority to acquire, own, operate, maintain, and improve the Devers Canal System and to enlarge and extend the canal system east of the Trinity River in Chambers, Liberty, and Jefferson Counties. The bill authorizes the authority to own the water rights and appropriate and divert state water under the permits and contracts previously owned by and acquired from the Devers Canal Rice Producers Association, Inc., and to distribute, sell, and use state water for any purpose approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The bill requires the authority, before entering into a contract to sell or provide water for any nonirrigation use in Chambers County outside the authority's boundaries that the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District had authority to provide or sell under the navigation district's water rights on May 1, 2009, to send to the navigation district a written notice of intent to sell or provide water for nonirrigation use in Chambers County outside the authority's boundaries and to allow the navigation district 30 days to exercise a right of first refusal to provide the water. The authority may enter into a contract described above only if the navigation district fails to properly exercise its right of first refusal or does properly exercise that right and does not enter into a contract to sell or otherwise provide water for the use described by the authority's notice of intent within four months of receipt of the notice.