By:  Puente                                           H.B. No. 1316
       73R4853 SMH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the drilling and operation of artesian wells.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 11.202(d), Water Code, is amended to read
    1-5  as follows:
    1-6        (d)  Except as provided by Subsection (e) of this section,
    1-7  after September 1, 1991, and before September <January> 1, 1997
    1-8  <1994>, a person may not drill and operate a free-flowing artesian
    1-9  well in a sole or principal source aquifer as designated by 40
   1-10  C.F.R., Part 149, pursuant to Section 1424(e), Safe Drinking Water
   1-11  Act (42 U.S.C. 300h-3(e)) that will result in a flow of more than
   1-12  5,000 gallons per minute or that is within 1,000 feet of another
   1-13  well if the combined flows would exceed 5,000 gallons per minute.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-19  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-20  passage, and it is so enacted.