By Seaman                                              H.B. No. 480
         76R3196 JJT-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to notice and hearing for an application for a permit for
 1-3     a land treatment or other disposal facility.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 91, Natural Resources Code,
 1-6     is amended by adding Sections 91.116 and 91.117 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 91.116.  NOTICE OF LAND TREATMENT PERMIT APPLICATION.
 1-8     (a)  A person who files an application for a permit for a treatment
 1-9     and disposal facility for land treatment or for land spreading of
1-10     oil and gas waste or waste related to a geothermal resource shall
1-11     publish notice of the application in accordance with this section.
1-12           (b)  The notice must include:
1-13                 (1)  the date the application was filed;
1-14                 (2)  a description of the location of the site for
1-15     which the application was made and the name of the owner of the
1-16     site;
1-17                 (3)  the name of the applicant;
1-18                 (4)  the type of waste to be treated or spread; and
1-19                 (5)  the treatment method proposed.
1-20           (c)  The notice must be published:
1-21                 (1)  at least once each week for four consecutive weeks
1-22     with the first publication occurring not later than the seventh day
1-23     after the date on which the application is filed; and
1-24                 (2)  in a newspaper of general  circulation in the
 2-1     county in which the proposed treatment would occur.
 2-2           Sec. 91.117.  PUBLIC INFORMATION HEARING ON LAND TREATMENT
 2-3     PERMIT APPLICATION.  (a)  If the commission receives a request for
 2-4     a public comment hearing before the commission makes a
 2-5     determination on an application for a permit for a treatment and
 2-6     disposal facility for land treatment or for land spreading of oil
 2-7     and gas waste or waste related to a geothermal resource, commission
 2-8     staff shall conduct a hearing to receive public comment.
 2-9           (b)  The hearing must be held in the county in which the
2-10     proposed treatment would occur.
2-11           (c)  Comments received at a hearing under this section are
2-12     part of the record of the contested case hearing on the
2-13     application.
2-14           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-15     applies only to an application filed on or after that date.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.