By Turner of Coleman, Hilderbran,                      H.B. No. 714
             Black, Junell
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to pipeline easements.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 111, Natural Resources
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 111.0194 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 111.0194.  PIPELINE EASEMENTS.  (a)  Unless the terms of
    1-7  the grant or the condemnation judgment expressly provide otherwise,
    1-8  or the easement rights otherwise prescriptively owned through
    1-9  actual use are greater, an easement created through grant or
   1-10  through the power of eminent domain for the benefit of a single
   1-11  common carrier pipeline for which the power of eminent domain is
   1-12  available under Section 111.019 as of the effective date of this
   1-13  section, is presumed to create an easement in favor of the common
   1-14  carrier pipeline, or a successor in interest to the common carrier
   1-15  pipeline, that extends only a width of 50 feet as to each pipeline
   1-16  laid under the grant or judgment in eminent domain prior to
   1-17  September 1, 1993.
   1-18        (b)  The presumption in Subsection (a) is not applicable to
   1-19  pipeline easements of a common carrier pipeline granted under the
   1-20  terms of an oil and gas lease or oil, gas, and mineral lease, or to
   1-21  any easement that authorizes the construction of gathering lines.
   1-22        (c)  The presumption set out in Subsection (a) on the
   1-23  limitation of width may be rebutted by evidence on behalf of the
   1-24  common carrier pipeline that a greater width is reasonably needed
    2-1  for purposes of operation, construction of additional lines under
    2-2  the grant or judgment in an eminent domain proceeding, maintenance,
    2-3  repair, replacement, safety, or surveillance or as a buffer zone
    2-4  for protection of the safe operation of the common carrier pipeline
    2-5  together with such other evidence as a court may deem relevant to
    2-6  establish the extent of an easement in excess of 50 feet in width.
    2-7        (d)  The presumption in Subsection (a) shall apply separately
    2-8  as to each pipeline under a grant or judgment that allows more than
    2-9  one pipeline on the subservient estate.
   2-10        (e)  This section shall not be deemed to limit any rights of
   2-11  ingress to or egress from easements that may exist under the
   2-12  original grant, prescriptive right, or common law.
   2-13        (f)  Nothing herein shall limit or otherwise affect the
   2-14  rights of parties engaged in litigation prior to enactment of this
   2-15  section.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.