1-1  By:  Ratliff                                           S.B. No. 651
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 20, 1995; February 20, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
    1-4  March 7, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 10,
    1-5  Nays 0; March 7, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to an exemption from the requirement to obtain a water use
    1-9  permit for certain reservoirs used in surface coal mining
   1-10  operations.
   1-11        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-12        SECTION 1.  Section 11.142, Water Code, is amended by adding
   1-13  Subsection (c) to read as follows:
   1-14        (c)  Without obtaining a permit, a person may construct or
   1-15  maintain a  reservoir for the sole purpose of sediment control as
   1-16  part of a surface coal mining operation under the Texas Surface
   1-17  Coal Mining and Reclamation Act (Article 5920-11, Vernon's Texas
   1-18  Civil Statutes).
   1-19        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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