By Counts                                             H.B. No. 2643
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the development of water resources and granting
    1-3  authority to the Texas Water Development Board.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  This Act shall be known as the 1993 Water
    1-6  Resources Act.  It is the policy of the state to provide for the
    1-7  public welfare by insuring the availability of essential public
    1-8  water supplies while affording reasonable and necessary protection
    1-9  to our natural environmental.  The Texas Water Development Board is
   1-10  the agency of the state charged with the task of implementing the
   1-11  state's water supply policy.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  CERTAIN MUNICIPAL WATER SUPPLIES.  In counties
   1-13  having a population of 500,000 or more, no more than forty percent
   1-14  of the municipal water supply may be dependent on the yield of a
   1-15  single reservoir or aquifer.  These water supplies must be
   1-16  supported by multiple sources of water sufficient to provide this
   1-17  ratio of safety.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  GRADUAL REDUCTION OF DEPENDENCE  (a)  In counties
   1-19  subject to the limitation in the preceding section on the date of
   1-20  this Act, the reduction in dependence on a major source of water
   1-21  supply shall be gradual, according to the following descending
   1-22  scale of dependence.
   1-23        Municipal water suppliers must secure sufficient alternate
    2-1  supplies to provide no more than 90 percent of total supplies from
    2-2  any one source by 1998, no more than 75 percent from any one source
    2-3  by 2010, no more than 55 percent from any one source by 2020, no
    2-4  more than 40 percent from any one source by 2030.
    2-5        (b)  Municipal water suppliers may contract with the Texas
    2-6  Water Development Board to provide for the development and
    2-7  management of alternate water supplies to meet the requirements of
    2-8  this Act.  Enforceable water development contracts with the
    2-9  Development Board entered into no later than December 31, 1994, are
   2-10  deemed to satisfy the descending scale of dependence requirements.
   2-11        SECTION 4.  SURFACE WATER SUPPLY AUTHORIZED (a)  The Texas
   2-12  Water Development Board shall construct with all deliberate speed a
   2-13  reservoir in DeWitt and Gonzales Counties approximately five miles
   2-14  northwest of the town of Cuero on Sandies Creek in the Guadalupe
   2-15  River Basin to provide surface water supplies.
   2-16        (b)  The Texas Water Development Board is granted the right
   2-17  to impound and store the waters of the state in an amount not to
   2-18  exceed 606,276 acre-feet annually and to use that amount of water
   2-19  at any location determined by the Development Board for any lawful
   2-20  purpose.  In addition, the Development Board may recapture
   2-21  springflows at this or any other location for reuse at the springs
   2-22  or to supplement the use of groundwater.  No additional authority
   2-23  from any agency of the state is necessary for the construction of
   2-24  this reservoir or the use of water authorized by this Act.
   2-25        SECTION 5.  SPRING HABITAT PROTECTION AUTHORIZED
    3-1        The Texas Water Development Board shall research, plan, and
    3-2  construct facilities necessary to assure the continuous protection
    3-3  of the habitat of the endangered species at Comal Springs in Comal
    3-4  County and San Marcos Springs in Hays County.  The Development
    3-5  Board may assess a fee sufficient to recover its costs on water
    3-6  users obtaining water from the Edwards Aquifer directly or
    3-7  indirectly.  Fees shall be based on the comparative value of the
    3-8  aquifer water developed for use by the facilities and devices
    3-9  employed by the Development Board for the benefit of the users.
   3-10        SECTION 6.  EMERGENCY CLAUSE.  The importance of this
   3-11  legislation and the crowded condition of the calendars in both
   3-12  houses create an emergency and an imperative public necessity that
   3-13  the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-14  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-15  and that this Act take effect and be in force according to its
   3-16  terms, and it is so enacted.