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.