By Puente                                              H.B. No. 533
         76R2637 SMJ-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the priority of a water right authorizing a transfer of
 1-3     water from a river basin in this state to another river basin in
 1-4     the same regional water planning area.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 11.085(s), Water Code, is amended to read
 1-7     as follows:
 1-8           (s)  A water right, or an amendment to a permit, certified
 1-9     filing, or certificate of adjudication, authorizing a [Any
1-10     proposed] transfer of [all or a portion of a] water [right] under
1-11     this section is junior in priority to water rights granted before
1-12     the time the application for the transfer is accepted for filing.
1-13     This subsection does not apply to a water right, or an amendment to
1-14     a permit, certified filing, or certificate of adjudication,
1-15     authorizing a transfer of water from a river basin in this state to
1-16     another river basin in the same regional water planning area
1-17     established under Section 16.053.
1-18           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act applies only to an application for
1-19     a water right, or an amendment to a permit, certified filing, or
1-20     certificate of adjudication, authorizing an interbasin transfer of
1-21     water that is accepted for filing on or after the effective date of
1-22     this Act.
1-23           (b)  An application for a water right, or an amendment to a
1-24     permit, certified filing, or certificate of adjudication,
 2-1     authorizing an interbasin transfer of water that is accepted for
 2-2     filing before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law
 2-3     in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and
 2-4     the former law continues in effect for that purpose.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.