By:  Hilderbran                                       H.B. No. 1810
       73R5106 MI-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the appropriation of state water for recharging certain
    1-3  underground freshwater bearing sands and aquifers.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 11.023, Water Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Subsections (g), (h), and (i) to read as follows:
    1-7        (g)  State water, including the normal or ordinary flow of a
    1-8  stream or watercourse, may be appropriated to recharge underground
    1-9  freshwater bearing sands and aquifers other than the Edwards
   1-10  Aquifer in Kinney, Uvalde, Medina, Bexar, Comal and Hays counties
   1-11  if it can be established by expert testimony that an unreasonable
   1-12  loss of state water will not occur and that the water can be
   1-13  withdrawn at a later time for application to a beneficial use.
   1-14        (h)  When it is put or allowed to sink into the ground, water
   1-15  appropriated under Subsection (g) of this section loses its
   1-16  character and classification as state water and is considered
   1-17  percolating groundwater.
   1-18        (i)  Water considered percolating groundwater under
   1-19  Subsection (h) of this section may be regulated by an underground
   1-20  water district operating under Chapter 52 of this code.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-3  passage, and it is so enacted.