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.