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Senate Bill 660 |
Senate Author: Hinojosa et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
House Sponsor: Ritter |
Senate Bill 660 amends the Water Code to set the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to be reviewed under the Texas Sunset Act during the period in which state agencies abolished in 2023 and every 12th year thereafter are reviewed.
In addition to including the Sunset Advisory Commission's across-the-board recommendations, the bill, in the event of a default relating to a financial assistance program and on request by the TWDB, requires the attorney general to seek a writ of mandamus to compel a financial assistance program recipient or the recipient's officers, agents, and employees to cure the default, and to seek any other legal or equitable remedy the TWDB and the attorney general consider necessary and appropriate. In addition to such remedies, the attorney general, at the request of the TWDB, is required to bring suit in a district court in Travis County for the appointment of a receiver to collect the assets and carry on the business of such a recipient under certain conditions.
The bill removes provisions establishing the Texas Geographic Information Council, requires the TWDB's executive administrator to designate the director of the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) to serve as the state geographic information officer, and sets forth the duties of that officer. The bill requires the state water plan to include an evaluation of the state's progress in meeting future water needs and an analysis of the number of projects included in the preceding state water plan that received financial assistance from the TWDB.
The bill requires the groundwater conservation districts located in each management area located in a regional water planning area to appoint one representative to serve on the regional water planning group. The bill requires that a regional water plan that must be submitted by each regional water planning group to the TWDB be consistent with applicable desired future conditions.
The bill requires the TWDB and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), in consultation with the Water Conservation Advisory Council, to develop a uniform, consistent methodology and guidance for calculating water use and conservation to be used by a municipality or water utility in developing water conservation plans and preparing reports, and sets out minimum requirements for the methodology and guidance. The bill requires the TWDB or TCEQ to use the methodology and guidance in evaluating certain water conservation plans, programs, surveys, and reports, and requires the TWDB and TCEQ, respectively, to adopt certain rules requiring the methodology and guidance to be used in certain plans and reports. The bill requires the TWDB, in consultation with TCEQ and the council, to develop a data collection and reporting program for municipalities and water utilities with more than 3,300 connections. The bill requires TCEQ and the TWDB to adopt rules and standards as necessary to implement provisions relating to water conservation.
The bill establishes that water financial assistance bonds that have been authorized but have not been issued are not considered to be state debt payable from the general revenue fund for purposes of the constitutional limit on such debt until the legislature makes an appropriation from the fund to the TWDB to pay the debt service on the bonds, and sets out related provisions.
The bill requires the board of directors of a groundwater conservation district to post certain notice at least 10 days before a public hearing on any proposed, relevant desired future conditions or a meeting at which the district will adopt a desired future condition.
The bill amends provisions relating to joint planning in a management area. The bill requires representatives of the groundwater conservation districts in a management area to meet at least annually to, among other purposes, review proposals to adopt new or amend existing desired future conditions. The bill requires districts every five years to propose for adoption, rather than establish, desired future conditions for the relevant aquifers within the management area and to make several specified considerations before voting on the conditions, and requires the proposed conditions to provide a certain balance between groundwater production and conservation.
The bill requires proposed desired future conditions to be approved by a two-thirds vote of all the district representatives and requires each district to hold a public hearing on any relevant proposed conditions and to compile a certain summary that includes relevant comments received and suggested revisions. District representatives are required to reconvene to review reports, consider suggested revisions, adopt as a resolution by a two-thirds vote the desired future conditions for the management area, and produce an explanatory report. The bill requires a district, after it receives the resolution and explanatory report, to adopt the applicable conditions. The bill establishes provisions relating to the notice of a joint meeting of districts.
The bill requires TCEQ and the TWDB, on request, to make technical staff available to assist with the development of desired future conditions during the joint planning process and authorizes district representatives to appoint and convene nonvoting advisory subcommittees who represent certain interests to assist in the development of the conditions.
The bill requires the TWDB to require the districts in a management area to submit to the TWDB's executive administrator before a certain deadline, among other things, the adopted desired future conditions, and requires each district in the management area to ensure that its management plan contains goals and objectives consistent with achieving the adopted conditions.
The bill authorizes an affected person, defined by the bill as one of several entities, to file a petition with TCEQ requesting an inquiry regarding a groundwater conservation district for any of a number of specified reasons. Current law authorizes TCEQ, after receiving a review panel's report regarding a petition, to take any action against a district it considers necessary if TCEQ makes one of several specified findings; the bill adds to the list of those findings.