By Saunders                                           H.B. No. 2431
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a requirement to conduct public meetings on municipal
    1-3  solid waste and hazardous waste permit applications.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 361.088, Health and Safety Code, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 361.088.  Permit Issuance, Amendment, Extension and
    1-8  Renewal; Notice and Hearing.  (a)  The department or the commission
    1-9  may amend, extend, or renew a permit it issues in accordance with
   1-10  reasonable procedures prescribed by the department or commission,
   1-11  as appropriate.
   1-12        (b)  The procedures prescribed by Section 361.067 for a
   1-13  permit application apply to an application to amend, extend, or
   1-14  renew a permit.
   1-15        (c)  Before a permit is issued, amended, extended, or
   1-16  renewed, the agency to which the application is submitted shall
   1-17  provide an opportunity for a hearing to the applicant and persons
   1-18  affected.  The agency may also hold a hearing on its own motion.
   1-19        (d)  In addition to providing an opportunity for a hearing
   1-20  held under this section, the department or commission shall hold a
   1-21  public meeting and give notice as provided by Section 361.0791 on
   1-22  an application for a new hazardous waste or municipal solid waste
   1-23  management facility in the county in which the facility is to be
    2-1  located.  The department or commission, on request of a person
    2-2  affected or as otherwise required by agency rule, shall hold a
    2-3  public meeting on an application for a Class 3 modification or
    2-4  major amendment to an existing facility's hazardous waste permit
    2-5  and on an application for a Class 3 modification or major amendment
    2-6  to an existing facility's municipal solid waste permit.
    2-7        SECTION 2.  This Act does not apply to an application for a
    2-8  new facility or to an application to amend the permit of an
    2-9  existing facility if a contested hearing on the application has
   2-10  been scheduled before the effective date of this Act.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.