Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 3152 amends the Health and Safety Code to authorize the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to certify municipal setting designations (MSDs) to eliminate the need for response actions addressing contaminant impacts to groundwater that has been restricted from use as potable water by ordinance or restrictive covenant. The bill allows a person, including a local government, to submit an application for an MSD if the property is located within the corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction of a municipality with a population of at least 20,000 and a public drinking water supply system exists that satisfies minimum standards of sanitation and supplies, or is capable of supplying, drinking water to certain property. The bill sets forth requirements for the application and requires the executive director to take certain action within 90 days. The bill requires the applicant, on or before the date of submitting the application, to provide notice to each municipality, private-water-well owner, and retail public utility meeting specified requirements and requires the notice to include certain information. The bill requires the executive director to deny the application under certain circumstances and to explain the reasons for denial. An applicant is required to submit resolutions of support from each affected city council and retail public utility governing board and copies of any ordinance or covenant restricting the groundwater from use as potable water. The bill requires an MSD certificate to include certain information and to be sent to affected persons and entities. It prohibits the executive director, if no potable water wells are located within a certain distance of the MSD, from requiring a person to investigate and respond to groundwater contamination unless it is necessary to protect human health or ecological resources. If potable water wells are located within a certain distance of the MSD, the bill requires the executive director to order an investigation of groundwater contamination and to approve certain response actions, depending on whether the contamination has caused or is expected to cause harm. The executive director is authorized to require response actions in a larger area if necessary to protect human health and ecological resources.

            The bill amends the Local Government Code to authorize a municipality, generally or for the purpose of establishing and enforcing an MSD, to regulate the pumping, extraction, and use of groundwater by persons other than retail public utilities, within its corporate limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction, to prevent the use of or contact with groundwater that presents an actual or potential threat to human health.