By Cuellar of Webb                                    H.B. No. 2792
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to surplus state water diverted from an international
    1-3  stream for domestic or municipal purposes.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 11, Water Code, is amended
    1-6  by adding Section 11.853 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 11.853.  RETURN OF SURPLUS MUNICIPAL WATER FROM AN
    1-8  INTERNATIONAL STREAM.  (a)  In this section, "surplus water" is
    1-9  state water that is diverted for domestic or municipal purposes
   1-10  under a water right for that purpose from a stream which
   1-11  constitutes or defines the boundary between the United States and
   1-12  the Republic of Mexico, is reduced to possession by a municipality,
   1-13  and is returned to the stream from which it was diverted at a
   1-14  specific metered point.
   1-15        (b)  For water accounting and reporting purposes only, that
   1-16  portion of the surplus water belonging to the United States as
   1-17  determined by the International Boundary and Water Commission of
   1-18  the United States and Mexico is not appropriated water and may not
   1-19  be counted as part of the total amount of water authorized under
   1-20  the water right to be diverted for beneficial use, so long as
   1-21  downstream water rights, either adjudicated, permitted, or
   1-22  riparian, are not detrimentally affected.
   1-23        (c)  During any monthly accounting period in which the
    2-1  watermaster determines that insufficient water is available in the
    2-2  system to meet outstanding requests for water, the credit provided
    2-3  in Subsection (b) of this section shall not apply.
    2-4        (d)  Any additional diversions authorized as a result of the
    2-5  credit provided in Subsection (b) of this section may only be taken
    2-6  in a monthly accounting period in which the watermaster determines
    2-7  that sufficient water is available in the system to meet
    2-8  outstanding requests for water or when the watermaster determines
    2-9  that downstream water rights, either adjudicated, permitted, or
   2-10  riparian, will not be detrimentally affected.
   2-11        SECTION 2.  Nothing in this Act affects the allocation of
   2-12  water under any treaty or other international agreement in force
   2-13  between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico.
   2-14  This Act applies only to rights to water allocated to the United
   2-15  States in accordance with these treaties and international
   2-16  agreements.  No activities authorized by this Act shall be carried
   2-17  out in a manner that is inconsistent with any treaty or other
   2-18  international agreement, that is contrary to the authority of the
   2-19  International Boundary and Water Commission of the United States
   2-20  and Mexico, or that detrimentally affects downstream water rights.
   2-21        SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to water diverted on or
   2-22  after the effective date of this Act.  Water diverted before the
   2-23  effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect at the
   2-24  time the water was diverted, and that law is continued in effect
   2-25  for that purpose.
    3-1        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect January 1, 1994.
    3-2        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.