By Barrientos S.B. No. 549
75R5523 MI-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to annual cost recovery fees for regional water quality
1-3 assessment.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 26.0135(h), Water Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (h) The commission shall apportion, assess, and recover the
1-8 reasonable costs of administering the water quality management
1-9 programs under this section [through the fiscal year ending August
1-10 31, 1998,] from users of water and wastewater permit holders in the
1-11 watershed according to the records of the commission generally in
1-12 proportion to their right, through permit or contract, to use water
1-13 from and discharge wastewater in the watershed. Irrigation water
1-14 rights will not be subject to this assessment. The cost to river
1-15 authorities and others to conduct regional water quality assessment
1-16 shall be subject to prior review and approval by the commission as
1-17 to methods of allocation and total amount to be recovered. The
1-18 commission shall adopt rules to supervise and implement the water
1-19 quality assessment and associated costs. The rules shall ensure
1-20 that water users and wastewater dischargers do not pay excessive
1-21 amounts, that a river authority may recover no more than the actual
1-22 costs of administering the water quality management programs called
1-23 for in this section, and that no municipality shall be assessed
1-24 cost for any efforts that duplicate water quality management
2-1 activities described in Section 26.177 of this chapter. The rules
2-2 concerning the apportionment and assessment of reasonable costs
2-3 shall provide for a recovery of not more than $5,000,000 annually
2-4 [through the fiscal year ending August 31, 1998]. Costs recovered
2-5 by the commission are to be deposited to the water quality fund.
2-6 The commission may apply not more than 10 percent of the costs
2-7 recovered annually toward the commission's overhead costs for the
2-8 administration of this section and the implementation of regional
2-9 water quality assessments. The commission shall file a [final]
2-10 written report accounting for the costs recovered under this
2-11 section with the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker
2-12 of the house of representatives on or before December 31 of each
2-13 even-numbered year[, 1998]. [This subsection expires January 1,
2-14 1999.]
2-15 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21 passage, and it is so enacted.