By Zbranek H.B. No. 1568
74R3304 MI-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to permitting requirements for hazardous waste injection
1-3 wells in solution-mined salt dome caverns.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 27.051(g)(2), Water Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (2) Before issuing a permit for a hazardous waste
1-8 injection well in a solution-mined salt dome cavern, the commission
1-9 by order must find that there is an urgent public necessity for the
1-10 hazardous waste injection well. The commission, in determining
1-11 whether an urgent public necessity exists for the permitting of the
1-12 hazardous waste injection well in a solution-mined salt dome
1-13 cavern, must find that:
1-14 (A) the injection well will be designed,
1-15 constructed, and operated in a manner that provides at least the
1-16 same degree of safety as required of other currently operating
1-17 hazardous waste disposal technologies;
1-18 (B) consistent with the need and desire to
1-19 manage within the state hazardous wastes generated in the state:
1-20 (i) <,> there is a substantial or obvious
1-21 public need for additional hazardous waste disposal capacity
1-22 because the amount of hazardous waste generated in the state
1-23 exceeds the capacity to treat and store that hazardous waste;
1-24 (ii) there is no practical, economical,
2-1 and feasible alternative to an injection well reasonably available
2-2 to manage the hazardous waste; and
2-3 (iii) the hazardous waste injection well
2-4 will contribute additional capacity toward servicing that need;
2-5 (C) the injection well will be constructed and
2-6 operated in a manner so as to safeguard public health and welfare
2-7 and protect physical property and the environment;
2-8 (D) the applicant has demonstrated that
2-9 groundwater and surface waters, including public water supplies,
2-10 will be protected from the release of hazardous waste from the
2-11 salt-dome waste containment cavern; and
2-12 (E) any other criteria required by the
2-13 commission to satisfy that the test of urgency has been met.
2-14 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
2-15 (b) The change in law made by Section 27.051(g)(2), Water
2-16 Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to an application for a
2-17 permit for a hazardous waste injection well in a solution-mined
2-18 salt dome cavern that is:
2-19 (1) pending before the Texas Natural Resource
2-20 Conservation Commission on September 1, 1995; or
2-21 (2) submitted to the Texas Natural Resource
2-22 Conservation Commission on or after that date.
2-23 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-24 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-25 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-26 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-27 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.