By:  Gallego                                           H.B. No. 799
       73R730 JJT-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a permit requirement for the land application of
    1-3  sludge.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
    1-6  Code, is amended by adding Section 361.115 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 361.115.  PERMIT FOR LAND APPLICATION OF SLUDGE; NOTICE
    1-8  AND HEARING.  (a)  A person may not apply sludge to land for a
    1-9  beneficial use or any other purpose unless the person has obtained
   1-10  a permit from the commission for the land application.
   1-11        (b)  At the request of any affected person or on its own
   1-12  motion, the commission shall hold a public contested case hearing
   1-13  in accordance with this subchapter on an application for a permit
   1-14  to apply sludge to land.
   1-15        (c)  The commission by rule shall require the permit
   1-16  applicant to publish notice of the hearing in a newspaper of
   1-17  general circulation in the county where the land to which the
   1-18  sludge is proposed to be applied is located not less than once each
   1-19  week for the three weeks preceding the hearing on the application.
   1-20        (d)  A permit is not required under this section for the
   1-21  disposal or treatment of sludge if the disposal or treatment is
   1-22  subject to another permit requirement under this subchapter or
   1-23  rules adopted under this subchapter.
   1-24        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.