By Gallego                                             H.B. No. 799
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a permit requirement for the land application of
    1-3  municipal sludge and to the application, use, treatment, disposal,
    1-4  or storage of sludge.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
    1-7  Code, is amended by adding Section 361.115 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 361.115.  AUTHORIZATION FOR LAND APPLICATION OF
    1-9  MUNICIPAL SLUDGE; NOTICE AND MEETING.  (a)  The commission may not
   1-10  issue a new registration for the application of municipal sludge to
   1-11  land unless the commission has held a public meeting in accordance
   1-12  with the requirements of rules adopted under Subsection (b).  Such
   1-13  public meeting is not a contested case hearing under the
   1-14  Administrative Procedure and Texas Register Act (Article 6252-13a,
   1-15  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes).
   1-16        (b)  The commission by rule shall require the applicant to
   1-17  publish notice of the meeting in a newspaper of general circulation
   1-18  in the county where the land to which the municipal sludge is
   1-19  proposed to be applied is located not less than once a week for the
   1-20  three weeks preceding the meeting.
   1-21        (c)  The requirements of this section are not applicable to
   1-22  any disposal or treatment subject to another requirement under this
   1-23  subchapter or rules adopted under this subchapter.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  Effective September 1, 1994, Subchapter B,
    2-1  Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, is amended by adding Section
    2-2  361.0225 to read as follows:
    2-3        Sec. 361.0225.  APPLICATION OF SLUDGE TO LAND.  (a)  A person
    2-4  may not apply sludge to land for beneficial use, use sludge for
    2-5  land treatment or landfilling, or otherwise treat, dispose of, or
    2-6  store sludge on land unless:
    2-7              (1)  the land to which the sludge is applied is of a
    2-8  type and slope specified by commission rule for that application;
    2-9  and
   2-10              (2)  the sludge is immediately covered by drilling it
   2-11  into the land in accordance with applicable law or covered with at
   2-12  least four inches of dirt.
   2-13        (b)  In this section, "sludge" means solid, semisolid, or
   2-14  liquid waste that contains human waste and that is generated from a
   2-15  municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant,
   2-16  water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility,
   2-17  including the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant if
   2-18  the treated effluent contains human waste.
   2-19        SECTION 3.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-20        (b)  The requirements of this Act shall not apply to an
   2-21  entity or person currently authorized to beneficially apply sludge
   2-22  by the Texas Water Commission or the Texas Department of Health on
   2-23  or before the effective date of this Act.
   2-24        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-25  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-26  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-27  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.