By Jackson                                            H.B. No. 1826
       74R5373 MI-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the approval of treatment, sewer, or disposal system
    1-3  plans by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 26.034, Water Code, is amended to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        Sec. 26.034.  Approval of Disposal System Plans.  (a)  The
    1-8  commission may, on a case-by-case basis,  <shall> review and
    1-9  approve plans and specifications for <all> treatment facilities,
   1-10  sewer systems, and disposal systems that transport, treat, or
   1-11  dispose of primarily domestic wastes.
   1-12        (b)  Before beginning construction, every person who proposes
   1-13  to construct or materially alter the efficiency of any treatment
   1-14  works to which this section applies shall submit completed plans
   1-15  and specifications to the commission <for review and approval>.
   1-16        (c)  The commission by rule shall adopt standards to
   1-17  determine which plans and specifications the commission will review
   1-18  for approval.  The standards must require the commission to
   1-19  consider:
   1-20              (1)  the risk a project poses to human health, safety,
   1-21  and the environment;
   1-22              (2)  the compliance status of the applicant; and
   1-23              (3)  whether the project is funded with public money.
   1-24        (d)  The commission may not require plans and specifications
    2-1  for a treatment facility or a sewer or disposal system that treats,
    2-2  transports, or disposes of  primarily domestic waste to be
    2-3  submitted from a person if the person has its own internal
    2-4  engineering review staff or is required by local ordinance to
    2-5  submit the plans and specifications to a political subdivision for
    2-6  review and approval. An internal engineering review staff must be
    2-7  separate from the engineering firm charged with the design of the
    2-8  plans and specifications under review.  Plans and specifications
    2-9  must be reviewed and certified to be in compliance with commission
   2-10  standards and waste discharge requirements before a reviewing
   2-11  entity other than the commission may approve the plans and
   2-12  specifications for construction.
   2-13        (e)  If the commission reviews the plans and specifications,
   2-14  the <The> commission shall approve the plans and specifications if
   2-15  they conform to the waste discharge requirements and water quality
   2-16  standards established by the commission.
   2-17        (f)  In this section, "political subdivision" means a county,
   2-18  a municipality, or a conservation and reclamation district or
   2-19  authority  established under Section 52, Article III, or Section
   2-20  59, Article XVI,  Texas Constitution.
   2-21        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-26  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-27  passage, and it is so enacted.