Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 801 adds provisions to the Water Code and amends the Texas Clean Air Act to provide a notice, comment, and opportunity for public hearing process for solid waste, water quality, injection well, air, and certain concentrated animal feeding operation permit applications. The notice and comment process replaces the contested case hearing process for any permits where opportunity for contested case hearings is not required by law.

            The act requires a permit applicant to publish notice of intent to obtain a permit and sets forth notice deadlines and requirements. For solid waste, water quality, and injection well permit applications, the executive director of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) is required to issue a preliminary decision on the application. The permit applicant must publish notice of this decision in accordance with certain requirements, and the notice is required to contain certain information, including instructions for submitting public comments to the TNRCC. The TNRCC must establish by rule the form and content of the notice, manner of publication, and the duration of the public comment period. An application for a concentrated animal feeding operation is subject to these provisions if it is located or proposed to be located in the watershed of a sole-source surface drinking water supply and is close enough to an intake of a public water supply system to potentially affect that water supply.

            For air permit applications, the procedure for notice and comment is the same except that for notice of either a preconstruction permit application or renewal of preconstruction permit, an affected person, as defined by statute and TNRCC rule, must request a public hearing and not withdraw that request before the preliminary decision has been issued in order to trigger the public comment process. Air permit applications for federal operating sources are subject to existing federal operating permit hearing provisions. For all permit applications, the TNRCC executive director is required to respond to public comments and to hold an informational public meeting during the comment period under certain circumstances. The TNRCC is also required to provide for additional notice, opportunity for public comment, or opportunity for public hearing if necessary to satisfy a requirement to obtain or maintain delegation or approval of a federal program.

            House Bill 801 allows a person to request that the TNRCC commissioners reconsider the executive director's decision on a permit application, or to request a contested case hearing on a permit application under certain circumstances, but prohibits the commission from granting a hearing request unless it was filed by an affected person. The act also directs the TNRCC to limit the number and scope of issues to be referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for a contested case hearing, requires the TNRCC to calculate, and SOAH to abide by, a date by which the hearing process should be completed, and provides limitations on certain actions of the administrative law judge conducting the hearing.