By:  Carriker                                          S.B. No. 158
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to authority to regulate underground water.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Section 28.001, Water Code, is amended to read as
    1-4  follows:
    1-5        Sec. 28.001.  Definitions.  In this chapter:
    1-6              (1)  "Commission" means the Texas Natural Resource
    1-7  Conservation Commission <Texas Water Commission>.
    1-8              (2)  "Executive Director" means the executive director
    1-9  of the <Texas Water> Commission.
   1-10              (3)  "Shaft" means any vertically oriented excavation,
   1-11  whether constructed by drilling or mining techniques, where the
   1-12  depth of the excavation is greater than its diameter, the
   1-13  excavation penetrates into or through the base of the uppermost
   1-14  water-bearing strata, and the primary purpose of the excavation is
   1-15  the transport of workers and materials to and from a destination,
   1-16  at depth, for purposes of geological studies, access to existing
   1-17  and planned subsurface mine workings, or for ventilation of those
   1-18  workings.
   1-19              (4)  "Underground water" means water percolating below
   1-20  the surface of the earth and that is suitable for agricultural,
   1-21  gardening, domestic, or stock raising purposes, but does not
   1-22  include defined subterranean streams or the underflow of rivers.
   1-23              (5)  "Water" or "water in the state" means groundwater,
    2-1  percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding
    2-2  reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes,
    2-3  inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico inside the territorial limits of
    2-4  the state, and all other bodies of natural and artificial surface
    2-5  water that is inland or coastal, fresh or salt, and navigable or
    2-6  nonnavigable, and includes the beds and banks of all watercourses
    2-7  and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or
    2-8  bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.
    2-9              (6) <(5)>  "Surface facilities" means the on-site
   2-10  above-ground appurtenances, structures, equipment, and other
   2-11  fixtures that are or will be used for storage or processing or in
   2-12  conjunction with the shaft operation.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  Section 28.011, Water Code, is amended to read as
   2-14  follows:
   2-15        Sec. 28.011.  Underground Water:  Regulations.  (a)  The
   2-16  commission may make and enforce reasonable rules and regulations to
   2-17  preserve and protect the quality of underground water.
   2-18        (b)  This section does not authorize the commission to limit
   2-19  the consumption of underground water, but does not impliedly
   2-20  repeal, revise, or amend commission authority to regulate water
   2-21  under other law.  <The commission shall make and enforce rules and
   2-22  regulations for conserving, protecting, preserving, and
   2-23  distributing underground, subterranean, and percolating water
   2-24  located in this state and shall do all other things necessary for
   2-25  these purposes.>
    3-1        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect on September 1, 1993.
    3-2        SECTION 4.  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.