By:  Ratliff                                           S.B. No. 651
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to an exemption from the requirement to obtain a water use
    1-2  permit for certain reservoirs used in surface coal mining
    1-3  operations.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 11.142, Water Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Subsection (c) to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  Without obtaining a permit, a person may construct or
    1-8  maintain a  reservoir for the sole purpose of sediment control as
    1-9  part of a surface coal mining operation under the Texas Surface
   1-10  Coal Mining and Reclamation Act (Article 5920-11, Vernon's Texas
   1-11  Civil Statutes).
   1-12        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-13        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.