1-1  By:  Willis (Senate Sponsor - Harris)                  H.B. No. 475
    1-2        (In the Senate - Received from the House April 10, 1995;
    1-3  April 11, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
    1-4  Natural Resources; April 28, 1995, reported adversely, with
    1-5  favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 8, Nays
    1-6  0; April 28, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 475               By:  Armbrister
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the right to divert state water for irrigation of
   1-11  certain cemeteries.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Section 11.121, Water Code, is amended to read as
   1-14  follows:
   1-15        Sec. 11.121.  Permit Required.  Except as provided in
   1-16  Sections 11.142, <and> 11.1421, and 11.1422 of this code, no person
   1-17  may appropriate any state water or begin construction of any work
   1-18  designed for the storage, taking, or diversion of water without
   1-19  first obtaining a permit from the commission to make the
   1-20  appropriation.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  Subchapter D, Chapter 11, Water Code, is amended
   1-22  by adding Section 11.1422 to read as follows:
   1-23        Sec. 11.1422.  PERMIT EXEMPTION FOR HISTORIC CEMETERIES.
   1-24  (a)  Without obtaining a permit, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation
   1-25  that owns a cemetery may divert from a river not more than 200
   1-26  acre-feet of water each year to irrigate the grounds of the
   1-27  cemetery if the cemetery:
   1-28              (1)  borders the river; and
   1-29              (2)  is more than 100 years old.
   1-30        (b)  The executive director or a watermaster who has
   1-31  jurisdiction over the river from which a cemetery diverts water
   1-32  under this section by order may restrict a diversion authorized by
   1-33  this section if the executive director or watermaster determines
   1-34  the diversion will harm a person downstream of the cemetery who
   1-35  acquired a water right before the date this section took effect.
   1-36  The executive director or watermaster shall limit the restriction
   1-37  to the extent of the harm and to the period of the harm.
   1-38        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-39  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-40  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-41  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-42  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-43  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-44  passage, and it is so enacted.
   1-45                               * * * * *