1-1     By:  Walker (Senate Sponsor - Bivins)                  H.B. No. 340
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 26, 1999;
 1-3     April 27, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Natural Resources; May 5, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 5, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the exemption from permitting requirements for certain
 1-9     wells in a groundwater conservation district.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 36.117(a), Water Code, is amended to read
1-12     as follows:
1-13           (a)  A district may exempt wells from the requirements to
1-14     obtain a drilling permit, an operating permit, or any other permit
1-15     required by this chapter or the district's rules.  A district may
1-16     not require a permit for:
1-17                 (1)  drilling or producing from a well either drilled,
1-18     completed, or equipped so that it is incapable of producing more
1-19     than 25,000 gallons of groundwater a day;
1-20                 (2)  the drilling or alteration of the size of a well
1-21     or to restrict the production of a well if the water produced or to
1-22     be produced from the well is used or to be used to supply the
1-23     domestic needs of 10 or fewer households and a person who is a
1-24     member of each household is either the owner of the well, a person
1-25     related to the owner or a member of the owner's household within
1-26     the second degree by consanguinity, or an employee of the owner;
1-27                 (3)  the drilling or alteration of the size of a well
1-28     or to restrict the production from the well if the water produced
1-29     or to be produced from the well is used or to be used to provide
1-30     water for feeding livestock and poultry connected with farming,
1-31     ranching, or dairy enterprises; or
1-32                 (4)  water wells to supply water for hydrocarbon
1-33     production activities, regardless of whether those wells are
1-34     producing, that are associated with any well permitted by the
1-35     Railroad Commission of Texas drilled before September 1, 1985[; or]
1-36                 [(5)  jet wells used for domestic needs].
1-37           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-38           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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