HBA-MPM H.B. 963 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 963 By: Jones, Delwin Natural Resources 6/7/1999 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The filling of playa lakes by contractors in Lubbock, Texas creates flooding problems for some areas of the city. H.B. 963 authorizes the governing body of a home-rule municipality with a population of 185,000 or more, as a method of stormwater management, to regulate the filling of a playa lake within the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction as a means for the effective management of storm water runoff to prevent harmful flooding or excess surface water. Furthermore, this bill prohibits regulations adopted under this Act from interfering with certain agricultural practices. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 401, Local Government Code, by adding Section 401.004, as follows: Sec. 401.004. PROTECTION OF PLAYA LAKES BY CERTAIN HOME-RULE MUNICIPALITIES. (a) Defines "playa lake" as a natural saucer-like depression in the topography, typically having a clayey bottom that is normally located in an arid or semiarid part of the state and collects runoff from rain but is subject to rapid evaporation. Provides that this term includes all areas within the basin projected to be inundated by pooled storm water runoff, as determined by an engineering analysis performed according to the specific requirements adopted by and in effect for a municipality. (b) Authorizes the governing body of a home-rule municipality with a population of 185,000 or more to regulate the filling of a playa lake within the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction as a means for the effective management of storm water runoff to prevent harmful flooding, or excess surface water. (c) Prohibits a regulation adopted under this section from interfereing with normal agricultural practices, including moving soil, berming for tail water reuse, plowing, seeding, cultivating, and harvesting for the production of food or fiber; or prohibiting any practice or activity that does not decrease the water holding capacity of a playa lake. "Berming" is defined as creating a strip of ground along a dike or creating a mound of earth; and "tail water" is defined as water below a dam or water-power development or excess surface water draining, especially from a field under cultivation (paraphrased, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition). SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.