1-1  By:  Rabuck (Senate Sponsor - Galloway)                H.B. No. 325
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 6, 1995;
    1-3  April 10, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Natural Resources; May 12, 1995, reported favorably by the
    1-5  following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 12, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to requiring public notice of an application for an
    1-9  authorization to store certain radioactive waste.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 401, Health and Safety
   1-12  Code, is amended by adding Section 401.154 to read as follows:
   1-13        Sec. 401.154.  NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE
   1-14  STORAGE.  (a)  The board and the Texas Natural Resource
   1-15  Conservation Commission by rule shall require an applicant for
   1-16  authorization under the agency's jurisdiction to store radioactive
   1-17  waste under a new license to publish notice of the application in a
   1-18  newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the
   1-19  proposed storage site is located.  The notice must:
   1-20              (1)  be published not earlier than three days before
   1-21  the date the application is filed and not later than the date the
   1-22  application is filed;
   1-23              (2)  name the applicant;
   1-24              (3)  provide the applicant's mailing address;
   1-25              (4)  provide the location where the waste is proposed
   1-26  to be stored, including the street address of the site, the name of
   1-27  the county, and the commissioners court precinct;
   1-28              (5)  describe the storage activity and the waste
   1-29  proposed to be stored;
   1-30              (6)  state that the public has the right to attend any
   1-31  hearing on the matter of the authorization; and
   1-32              (7)  give the telephone number and address of the
   1-33  department or the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission,
   1-34  as applicable, for the public to request information on the date,
   1-35  time, and place of any hearing on the matter of the authorization.
   1-36        (b)  This section does not apply to an application for
   1-37  authorization to store radioactive waste:
   1-38              (1)  with a half-life of less than 300 days; or
   1-39              (2)  that is an encapsulated special form radioactive
   1-40  material as defined by 49 CFR Section 173.403.
   1-41        (c)  This section does not apply to:
   1-42              (1)  a United States Department of Energy facility that
   1-43  is engaged in the disassembly of nuclear weapons and that, on
   1-44  September 1, 1995, is subject to a state and federal agreement; or
   1-45              (2)  the storage of naturally occurring radioactive
   1-46  material waste or of oil and gas NORM waste.
   1-47        SECTION 2.  The Texas Board of Health and the Texas Natural
   1-48  Resource Conservation Commission shall adopt rules to implement and
   1-49  enforce Section 401.154, Health and Safety Code, as added by this
   1-50  Act.  The rules shall take effect not later than January 1, 1996.
   1-51        SECTION 3.  (a)  Section 1 of this Act takes effect January
   1-52  1, 1996.
   1-53        (b)  Section 2 of this Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-54        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-55  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-56  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-57  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-58  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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