By Turner of Coleman                                  H.B. No. 2903
       74R723 KKA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to water rights of the Springhills Water Management
    1-3  District.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 654, Acts of the 71st Legislature,
    1-6  Regular Session, 1989, is amended by adding Section 11A to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        Sec. 11A.  WATER RIGHTS.  (a)  The Texas Natural Resource
    1-9  Conservation Commission shall issue one or more permits authorizing
   1-10  the district to appropriate and apply to any beneficial use any
   1-11  unappropriated water in the Medina River watershed that becomes
   1-12  available for appropriation until the amount authorized by permit
   1-13  equals 5,000 acre-feet each year.  The permit must authorize the
   1-14  district to transfer water out of the watershed for use at any
   1-15  place in the district regardless of the water's place of origin.
   1-16  The district is not required to comply with the application
   1-17  procedures provided by Subchapter D, Chapter 11, Water Code, to
   1-18  acquire the permit.
   1-19        (b)  In determining whether water is available for
   1-20  appropriation, the commission shall assume that the district will
   1-21  put the water to a totally consumptive use so that no return flow
   1-22  of the water to the watershed will occur.
   1-23        (c)  Before issuing a proposed permit to the district, the
   1-24  commission shall notify all persons who the commission considers
    2-1  may be affected by the permit, including each claimant or
    2-2  appropriator of water from the watershed and each navigation
    2-3  district within the Medina River basin.  The notice must indicate
    2-4  the amount of water proposed to be permitted and any additional
    2-5  information the commission considers necessary.
    2-6        (d)  On the request of a commissioner, the executive
    2-7  director, or any affected person made before the 15th day after the
    2-8  notice is given, the commission shall order a public hearing on the
    2-9  issuance of the permit and its potential impairment of water rights
   2-10  to be held before the permit is issued.
   2-11        (e)  After considering evidence at the hearing, the
   2-12  commission may:
   2-13              (1)  determine that water is not available for the
   2-14  permit;
   2-15              (2)  adjust the amount of the proposed permit to ensure
   2-16  no other water right is impaired; or
   2-17              (3)  issue the permit as proposed, if it will not
   2-18  impair another water right.  The commission shall issue the permit
   2-19  if no request for a hearing is made.
   2-20        (f)  The district shall pay all applicable fees under Section
   2-21  5.235, Water Code, associated with the use of water appropriated
   2-22  under this section, except the district is not required to pay a
   2-23  filing fee or cost of notice ordinarily required with an
   2-24  application for a permit under that section.  The district shall
   2-25  pay all watermaster fees associated with the use of water
   2-26  appropriated under this section.
   2-27        (g)  Any water right acquired by the district under this
    3-1  section may not be canceled, in whole or in part, under Subchapter
    3-2  E, Chapter 11, Water Code.
    3-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-9  passage, and it is so enacted.