74R5370 JJT-D
          By Willis                                              H.B. No. 475
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 475:
          By King                                            C.S.H.B. No. 475
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the right to divert state water for irrigation of
    1-3  certain cemeteries.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 11.121, Water Code, is amended to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        Sec. 11.121.  Permit Required.  Except as provided in
    1-8  Sections 11.142, <and> 11.1421, and 11.1422 of this code, no person
    1-9  may appropriate any state water or begin construction of any work
   1-10  designed for the storage, taking, or diversion of water without
   1-11  first obtaining a permit from the commission to make the
   1-12  appropriation.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Subchapter D, Chapter 11, Water Code, is amended
   1-14  by adding Section 11.1422 to read as follows:
   1-15        Sec. 11.1422.  PERMIT EXEMPTION FOR HISTORIC CEMETERIES.  (a)
   1-16  Without obtaining a permit, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation that
   1-17  owns a cemetery may divert from a river not more than 200 acre-feet
   1-18  of water each year to irrigate the grounds of the cemetery if the
   1-19  cemetery:
   1-20              (1)  borders the river; and
   1-21              (2)  is more than 100 years old.
   1-22        (b)  The executive director or a watermaster who has
   1-23  jurisdiction over the river from which a cemetery diverts water
   1-24  under this section by order may restrict a diversion authorized by
    2-1  this section if the executive director or watermaster determines
    2-2  the diversion will harm a person downstream of the cemetery who
    2-3  acquired a water right before September 1, 1995.  The executive
    2-4  director or watermaster shall limit the restriction to the extent
    2-5  of the harm and to the period of the harm.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-7        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.