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 * * * * *