SRC-ARR S.B. 938 76(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.B. 938
76R6800 JJT-FBy: Armbrister
Natural Resources
3/29/1999
As Filed


DIGEST 

Currently, in Texas, where the extraterritorial jurisdiction of a
municipality extends into a county that already has a ground water
conservation district, an overlap of authority occurs between the district
and the municipality, which can result in unnecessary duplication or
conflicting regulation and bureaucracy. This is particularly true in
instances in which a municipality uses its authority to control land uses
and development rather than affect water pollution. S.B. 938 would
authorize cities to exercise their normal authority within their
extraterritorial jurisdiction but that a groundwater conservation district
has priority in the extraterritorial jurisdiction area unless the district
yields those authorities to a municipality. 

PURPOSE

As proposed, S.B. 938 authorizes certain municipalities to regulate their
extraterritorial jurisdictions nonpoint source water pollution. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 26E, Water Code, by adding Section 26.181, as
follows: 

Sec. 26.181. LIMITATION ON WATER POLLUTION CONTROL AUTHORITY OF CERTAIN
MUNICIPALITIES. Provides that a municipality that has any part of its
extraterritorial jurisdiction in a county that has within its boundaries at
least one groundwater conservation district and that is not the county in
which the majority of the territory inside the municipality's corporate
boundaries is located may not enforce a water pollution control and
abatement program or regulate or control nonpoint source water pollution in
any part of the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction that is
located in that county unless the municipality has the written consent of
the county and the groundwater conservation districts in that county. 

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3. Emergency clause.