By Pickett                                             H.B. No. 963
       74R3343 JJT-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to liner requirements for municipal solid waste landfills.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 361.116 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 361.116.  LANDFILL LINERS.  (a)  The commission may not
    1-7  require a municipal solid waste landfill to be lined unless, after
    1-8  considering relevant conditions at the landfill site, including
    1-9  projected annual precipitation, the commission finds that a lined
   1-10  landfill will provide greater protection of groundwater quality or
   1-11  public health than protection provided by an unlined landfill at
   1-12  the site.
   1-13        (b)  The commission by rule shall provide:
   1-14              (1)  criteria for determining the need for a landfill
   1-15  to be lined to protect groundwater quality or to protect public
   1-16  health; and
   1-17              (2)  procedures for an applicant for a municipal solid
   1-18  waste landfill permit to apply for an exemption from the
   1-19  requirement of a liner at a specific site.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  The Texas Natural Resource Conservation
   1-21  Commission shall adopt rules under Section 361.116, Health and
   1-22  Safety Code, as added by this Act, not later than December 31,
   1-23  1995.
   1-24        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.